Deck 6: Crime and Punishment

Question 1

In the 1960s,when politicians mentioned cleaning up "violence in the streets," to what were they primarily referring?

A)gang wars in Chicago
B)a slew of murders,usually involving men attacking single females
C)riots and civil disobedience by civil rights protestors
D)muggings and catcalling

Answer 1

C  

Question 2

In the 1960s,politicians began what has come to be known as the "war on drugs," a product of which includes increased imprisonments for nonviolent drug offenses.Which of the following was one result of the war on drugs during the 1970s?

A)Potential race rioters were arrested.
B)Drug trafficking decreased.
C)Sexual violence decreased.
D)Drug use decreased.

Answer 2

A  

Question 3

Allison,a young African American mother of three,wants to move out of her predominantly black neighborhood because,as she tells people,"It is safer to raise my children in the suburbs." Allison's notions about her neighborhood safety are not matched by arrest rates for her current neighborhood versus the suburb where she desires to move,where violent crime is 30 percent more likely.Allison's reactions demonstrate:

A)that even when crime rates are low in predominantly minority communities,children are better protected by the "eyes on the street" in the suburbs
B)the fear of crime stemming from racial stereotypes does not just impact whites as people in the stereotyped racial and ethnic group can internalize the fears as well
C)that black women are impacted by their identities as blacks and women when it comes to crime;in Allison's case,her racial identity was more important in shaping her perceptions of crime
D)that the media's representation of blacks is the primary,and even only,reason that people largely associated blacks with criminality

Answer 3

B  

Question 4

Contrary to popular belief,social scientific evidence has shown that immigrants:

A)make America safer
B)make America less safe,whether they are here legally or not
C)are more likely to call police in an emergency
D)are less likely to drop out of high school

Question 5

According to the figure below,"Lifetime Likelihood of Imprisonment," which group has a higher chance of imprisonment than white men?

A)Latina women
B)black women
C)Latino men
D)white women

Question 6

The biggest increase in specific prison populations occurred between 1980 and 2011,a jump from 15,118 to 111,387.This represented a 587 percent increase in the number of _____ imprisoned.

A)women
B)men
C)illegal immigrants
D)juveniles

Question 7

Between 1925 and 1975,the prison population remained the same,fluctuating between 100,000 and 200,000 prisoners.By 2000,the prison population reached what number?

A)400,000
B)770,000
C)1,000,000
D)1,400,000

Question 8

At Mississippi's Parchman Prison Farm,how many prisoners died under cruel working conditions?

A)one in two
B)one in six
C)one in twenty
D)one in forty-five

Question 9

Bartholomew Whitehouse,a panhandler and former slave,was arrested in 1898 and imprisoned for six months without trial.Which law allowed this to occur?

A)stop and frisk
B)the Three-Fifths Compromise
C)vagabond laws
D)the Dream Act

Question 10

Some social scientists have argued that a sizable proportion of the crime drop that occurred in the 1990s can be attributed to what?

A)the decrease in the immigrant population
B)the decrease in out-of-wedlock births
C)the dramatic improvement in high school graduation rates
D)the growing immigrant population

Question 11

Some conservative politicians reacted to the Boston Marathon bombings by calling for a freeze on immigration reform.Which belief does their behavior reinforce?

A)Men are more likely to be terrorists than women.
B)Immigrants make the country less safe.
C)Immigrants who come to America legally are not a threat.
D)Immigrants are a threat to American jobs.

Question 12

What were the two important institutions that arose to control and confine nonwhites-African Americans in particular?

A)slavery and marriage
B)the lynch mob and the prison
C)voting and indentured servitude
D)schooling and the military

Question 13

The influence of race and economic class in predicting the probability of serving time in prison is best illustrated by:

A)the ability of black men in prison to get GEDs and advance their economic positions considerably after prison
B)the trend that arrest rates for poor whites are among the lowest of any other racial and economic groups
C)the increased probability that a black man born after the Civil Rights Movement who later dropped out of high school would end up incarcerated at some point in his lifetime
D)the inability of education to lessen the probability of incarceration for people of color in American society

Question 14

According to opinion polls,what was one of the primary concerns of U.S.voters during the mid-1960s?

A)civil rights
B)crime
C)gender discrimination
D)immigration

Question 15

Between 1880 and 1930,lynch mobs murdered how many black people?

A)570
B)1,208
C)2,300
D)4,582

Question 16

When Eric Garner,a black man,was killed by the police in 2014,his only official crime was selling loose cigarettes.What might be another reason that the police attacked him?

A)Cigarettes are a gateway drug,especially for black youth.
B)Garner was involved in an elaborate street gang.
C)Garner had a long history of attacking police officers and members of his own community.
D)Both whites and nonwhites believe that black men are more prone to violence than white men.

Question 17

What is one reason why sociologists believe immigrants may commit less crime?

A)They usually have low marriage rates.
B)They often have fewer high-end stores and homes in their neighborhoods.
C)Their neighborhoods often have codes of informal social control.
D)They fear deportation.

Question 18

One study analyzed more than 900 films and found that,with few exceptions,which group was represented as "Public Enemy Number One"?

A)Arabs
B)Africans
C)Indians
D)Eastern Europeans

Question 19

How did the white public justify the existence of lynch mobs?

A)Lynch mobs were not seen as justifiable by the general public.
B)Lynch mobs were justifiable because they supposedly did not kill many people.
C)Black lynch mobs attacked whites in equal numbers to those blacks attacked by white lynch mobs.
D)Lynch mobs supposedly kept white women safe from black male rapists.

Question 20

As Michael Tonry writes in Malign Neglect,"Through [the twentieth century] in periods of high intolerance of drug use,minority group stereotypes have been associated with deviant drug use." What would be an example of this phenomenon?

A)the rise of white women using antidepressants
B)the association of the Chinese with opium dens during the early twentieth century
C)the rise in abuse of ADHD medication among high school and college students
D)steroid use among professional athletes

Question 21

What would be an example of what Bruce Western calls "deterrence"?

A)A former drug dealer who decides in prison that he or she wants to be part of the formal economy and decides to go to college to be a teacher.
B)A mass murderer who is prevented from committing any more violent crimes because he or she is locked up in prison.
C)A person who refrains from stealing a designer dress when she realizes she would end up paying more in legal fines than the cost of the dress if she got caught.
D)A person convicted of raping women who takes a class in prison on feminism and begins to repent his or her crimes.

Question 22

Since when have nonwhite urban neighborhoods have been subjected to heightened surveillance and police repression?

A)the beginning of the Mexican drug war
B)the racial uprisings of the 1960s
C)World War II
D)the Cold War

Question 23

What proportion of the crime drop in the 1990s would have occurred even without the prison boom?

A)one-fourth
B)one-half
C)three-fifths
D)nine-tenths

Question 24

What is the term for a form of social organization in which the dynamics of the market are given priority over other concerns?

A)neoliberalism
B)racism
C)communism
D)postmodernism

Question 25

When boxer Mike Tyson was accused of raping Desiree Washington,a young black woman,many prominent African Americans,eager to quash the "black male rapist" trope,rushed to Tyson's side.This situation is an example of what?

A)inverse racism
B)racial isolationism
C)black protectionism
D)afro-feminism

Question 26

How many Americans buy something each year as part of the underground economy?

A)one in five
B)two in five
C)three in five
D)four in five

Question 27

What is the most widely used drug in the United States?

A)cocaine
B)marijuana
C)oxicodone
D)heroin

Question 28

"Structural disadvantage" refers to what?

A)the concentrated accumulation of overlapping and mutually reinforcing social problems in a single residential area
B)the genetic predisposition of African Americans to committing violent crime
C)the extent to which people of color are able to commit crimes without being brought to trial
D)the inability of whites to get away with committing violent crime,especially in predominantly white residential areas

Question 29

In 2008,Bernie Madoff,a former Wall Street broker,committed an elaborate Ponzi scheme and was found guilty of making fraudulent investments totaling over $60 billion.What is this type of crime called?

A)backdoor crime
B)cyber crime
C)white-collar crime
D)green eyeshade crime

Question 30

Most people arrested in the United States are of what racial-ethnic background?

A)white
B)black
C)Asian
D)Hispanic

Question 31

Monica is a twenty-two-year-old woman,who,like other women,has a one in five chance of being raped in her lifetime.Who is most likely to perpetrate sexual violence against her?

A)a gang member
B)a serial killer
C)a boyfriend
D)a stranger

Question 32

According to sociologist Bruce Western,what are the three ways that prisons might possibly reduce crime?

A)habituation,capitation,and growth
B)healing,governance,and rejuvenation
C)rehabilitation,incapacitation,and deterrence
D)medication,conditioning,and control

Question 33

According to the textbook,what is one political consequence of being imprisoned?

A)In many states,felons lose the right to vote.
B)People with criminal records are eliminated from job applicant pools.
C)Incarcerated parents miss out on key events of their children's lives.
D)Felons are more likely to vote than nonfelons.

Question 34

When comparing white-collar and violent street crime,we might conclude that:

A)violent street crime is more damaging to society because it causes fear and requires the expense of surveilling people through increased policing
B)street crimes are worse than white-collar crimes because of the different intentions and motivations of the criminals
C)white-collar crimes potentially damage society as much or more than violent street crimes because they cost society billions of dollars per year and even result in more deaths and injuries
D)when black people commit white-collar crimes,they are condemned even more than when they commit violent street crimes or than when white people commit white-collar crimes

Question 35

After George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin in 2012,the police did not arrest him because of the Stand Your Ground law.What was the supposed purpose of this law?

A)It required people to call the police when they perceived someone might be a physical threat.
B)It encouraged people to retreat from violent conflict at any cost.
C)It forced people to stay where they were when they sensed a threat to themselves or others.
D)It gave people the right to defend themselves against someone they perceived as a threat.

Question 36

Jasper,a young black man in Chicago,gets by as a low-level drug dealer.Given studies cited in the textbook,what can we likely conclude about his income and hours worked doing so?

A)Jasper probably makes close-to or less-than minimum wage,with hours that add up to only part-time work.
B)Jasper works overtime compared to the traditional workweek and makes a lucrative living,pulling in a couple of thousand dollars a week.
C)Jasper is "killing it" by working only a few hours a week but making money that adds up to a six-figure yearly salary.
D)Jasper works for a well-structured organized gang that pays him a salary through the ranks of their leadership for the work he does,meaning he makes the same amount no matter what hours he works.

Question 37

Why might immigrant women be more prone to become the repeated victims of intimate partner violence than native-born American women?

A)Even though the reality of the presence of immigrants in American society may be a reduction in overall crime,our society's institutions and media promote the acceptance of violence between immigrant couples.
B)A woman's risk of partner abuse increases the more isolated she is from the wider society,and immigrant women are perhaps the most isolated in America;many abuse programs and shelters are located in nonimmigrant neighborhoods.
C)Immigrant women are less likely to be educated in American institutions,and therefore their reports of violence and abuse happen within the networks of their communities in their countries of origin.
D)The media portrays solutions to the "problems of immigrants" as deportation,so society does not punish or arrest men in immigrant communities if they act violently toward women.

Question 38

Which kind of crime grosses between $300 billion and $660 billion each year?

A)sex trafficking
B)drug dealing
C)gun trade
D)white-collar

Question 39

What is one way that the "code of the street" is supported by mainstream corporations?

A)MTV was sued after its president was found drug dealing with underprivileged youth.
B)Designers like Louis Vuitton and Versace embrace the hip-hop styles,influences,and even musicians in their advertising and brand marketing.
C)The NFL suspended football player Ray Rice after video footage of him beating his fiancée on an elevator surfaced.
D)McDonald's came under scrutiny after providing toy guns in its Happy Meals.

Question 40

African Americans have grown so used to being pulled over by the police that many speak of being stopped on account of DWB.What does "DWB" stand for?

A)drinking while bad
B)driving while black
C)doping while beaten
D)daring white brother

Question 41

Briefly summarize the debate surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin.What are three ways in which his case is an example of broader racial issues in the United States?

Question 42

In what way did lynch mobs uphold white patriarchy?

Question 43

The authors of the textbook write,"Post-September 11 America is set apart not by the presence of terrorism but by the victims of it." Explain this quote in one sentence,and provide one piece of evidence to support your interpretation.

Question 44

Although most people associate the underground or informal economy with drug dealing,sociologists like Sudhir Venkatesh have shown it includes much more than that.List two examples,aside from drug dealing,that could comprise the underground economy.

Question 45

After Japanese fighter pilots bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941,prejudice and paranoia directed at Japanese Americans boiled over,and Japanese Americans were seen as "the enemy within our borders." Compare and contrast the treatment of Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor with the treatment of Arab Americans following the September 11,2001,attacks on the World Trade Center.

Question 46

The textbook provides two different arguments about how the media shape society's attitudes about race and crime.What are the two arguments,which do you find most convincing,and why? Propose one suggestion for improving the media's portrayal of race.

Question 47

What are the two reasons why most of the prison boom cannot be explained by rising crime rates?

Question 48

Evaluate the claim that the rise in the prison population was simply a response to a rising crime rate.Provide at least two pieces of evidence from Chapter 6 to support your answer.

Question 49

What was the Jena 6 case,and what is one point the case highlights regarding race relations in the United States?

Question 50

The textbook authors pose the following question: "Why,we might ask,is the corporate supervisor who,by ignoring safety precautions in the name of profit,directly is responsible for a mine caving in and killing ten men merely fined or fired,but the crazed man who guns down ten people in a shopping mall receives the death penalty?" Answer the question and provide at least two pieces of evidence from the text to support your answer.