Deck 6: Deviance

Question 1

Until the Supreme Court decision of June, 2015, Chris could marry Robin in some but not all states only if one of them was male and the other female. This is an example of the chapter's assertion that _____ shows that deviance is relative.

A) deviant people adopting societal norms
B) deviant behavior among consenting adults
C) deviant behavior results in similar behavior by different categories of people within a single society
D) differential treatment of similar behavior by different categories of people within a single society

Answer 1

differential treatment of similar behavior by different categories of people within a single society

Question 2

According to a 2010 taxpayer attitude survey, _____ of people believe that it is acceptable to cheat on income taxes.

A) 72%
B) 37%
C) 12%
D) 1%

Answer 2

12%

Question 3

According to _____, deviance gives the nondeviants a sense of solidarity by reasserting the importance of the rule being violated.

A) Daniel Solove
B) Daniel Gross
C) Emile Durkheim
D) Cornel West

Answer 3

Emile Durkheim

Question 4

Crime, according to Durkheim's point of view, is a _____ function for society, because it serves to reaffirm the legitimacy of the society and creates the boundaries for what is acceptable behavior.

A) destabilizing
B) positive
C) validating
D) detrimental

Question 5

Evidence that deviance is a(n) _____ is found in the fact that societies differ on what is considered deviance.

A) integral part of developing societies but not developed ones
B) absolute, not a relative, notion
C) relative, not an absolute, notion
D) integral part of some but not all societies

Question 6

One psychological theory is that deviants tend to be _____, who are asocial, aggressive, and impulsive.

A) depressives
B) chromosomally abnormal
C) psychopaths
D) traumatized

Question 7

According to Durkheim, the true function of punishment is to

A) prevent future crimes.
B) reassert the importance of the rule being violated.
C) satisfy the need for revenge.
D) make an example of the criminal.

Question 8

_____ theories consider the source of deviance to be conditions of the individual's mind or personality.

A) Sociological
B) Psychological
C) Biological
D) Physiological

Question 9

By punishing deviants, the group expresses collective indignation and reaffirms its commitments to the rules. This illustrates which of the five important principles of deviance described in the chapter?

A) Deviance is socially constructed.
B) Deviance is relative, not absolute.
C) The majority determines who and what is deviant.
D) Deviance is an integral part of all societies.

Question 10

Within a society, certain groups have more _____ than others, so they have more success in getting their definitions of deviance to prevail.

A) moral authority
B) power
C) logical reasons
D) differences of opinion

Question 11

Violators of important social norms are often _____; that is, they are set apart by being socially disgraced.

A) deviated
B) stigmatized
C) segregated
D) banished

Question 12

Caesare Lombroso's biological theory that criminals _____ has been substantially discredited.

A) can be identified by distinctive bumps on their skulls
B) represent a throwback to an earlier stage of human development
C) have larger brains and therefore larger skills
D) are generally males with XYY syndrome

Question 13

Deviance is _____, meaning that social organizations create definitions of right and wrong by originating norms, the infraction of which constitutes deviance.

A) individually based
B) socially constructed
C) a source of societal unrest
D) relative, not absolute

Question 14

The term "deviance" refers to

A) behavior that does not conform to social expectations.
B) biologically created reality.
C) behavior that is inherently wrong.
D) behavior consistently condemned from society to society.

Question 15

Who wrote a book about how the Internet has upped the ante regarding deviance and public shame?

A) Daniel Solove
B) Daniel Gross
C) Emile Durkheim
D) Cornel West

Question 16

The chapter notes that "Web sites are increasingly naming names, or at least posting descriptions, pictures, and license plate numbers, of people supposedly caught in the act of violating social norms." These types of Web sites are also known as

A) shame sites.
B) Internet norms.
C) deviance sites.
D) the public temper.

Question 17

Which of the following scenarios from the chapter illustrates the point that violators of important social norms are often stigmatized?

A) The major religious bodies in the United States have taken a strong position against homosexuality and their opposition has influenced the laws and community norms.
B) If most people believe that Iraqis are the enemy, then bombing their villages is appropriate and refusing to do so is deviant.
C) Murder is a deviant act, but the killing of an enemy during wartime is rewarded with praise and medals.
D) Because states make sex offender registries public, anyone can look online and find names, addresses, and pictures of the sex offenders in his or her state or neighborhood.

Question 18

In a heterogeneous society, what constitutes deviance

A) is almost unanimously agreed upon.
B) results in severely punitive response.
C) is the source of widespread disagreement.
D) is determined by law.

Question 19

One classical biological explanation of deviance called _____ focused on the determination of character by facial features.

A) physiognomy
B) phrenology
C) somatolog
D) sociology

Question 20

Who decides that certain behavior is or is not deviant in a society?

A) The majority
B) The government
C) Religious leaders
D) The voters

Question 21

Which of the following contended in a 2008 essay on the culture of poverty that we should stop focusing on the underclass because it is the overclass that is hurting society?

A) Daniel Solove
B) Daniel Gross
C) Emile Durkheim
D) Cornel West

Question 22

The term _____ deviance refers to the rule breaking that occurs before a person is labeled as "deviant."

A) secondary
B) residual
C) primary
D) previous

Question 23

_____ proposed that people turn to deviance because they are denied access to legitimate means of achieving the goals of society.

A) Sigmund Freud
B) Edwin Sutherland
C) Robert Merton
D) William Ryan

Question 24

The sociological theories that focus on _____ are based on the empirical observations that crime and mental illness rates vary by social location; that is, by social class, ethnicity, race, place of residence, and sex.

A) the culture of poverty
B) kinds of people
C) psychological problems
D) societal norms

Question 25

One danger of the system-blame orientation is that it

A) gives too much credibility to the idea that some individuals are malicious for psychological reasons.
B) blames the victim.
C) can present people as robots controlled totally by their social environment.
D) has no explanation for social problems like poverty or recidivism.

Question 26

Edwin Sutherland's theory of _____ proposes that procriminal sentiments are acquired by association with other individuals in a process of social interaction.

A) the culture of poverty
B) differential opportunities
C) differential association
D) inadequate socialization

Question 27

The person-blame interpretations of deviance reinforce

A) the idea that the social system is flawed.
B) the emphasis on changing the correctional system.
C) a focus on labeling theory.
D) social myths about the degree of control we have over our fate.

Question 28

According to _____, a person in the lower class does not have a strong sense of morality and thus is not constrained by legal rules.

A) Edwin Sutherland
B) Robert Merton
C) William Ryan
D) Edward Banfield

Question 29

Jackson was sent to prison because he was wrongly identified by an eyewitness as having robbed a convenience store. When he was released from prison, he could not find a job because he had a felony on his record, so to obtain money to live on, he robbed a convenience store. This type of behavior is called _____ deviance.

A) secondary
B) resulting
C) primary
D) ironic

Question 30

Gilberto's teacher says he will never do well in school and will probably become a criminal because he is not trying hard enough to learn English. The teacher's attitude is known as

A) predicting the future.
B) blaming the victim.
C) racial profiling.
D) blaming society.

Question 31

Some studies have shown that more than _____ of prison inmates are functionally illiterate.

A) 30%
B) 40%
C) 50%
D) 60%

Question 32

In Freudian theory, the deviant is a person who has not developed an adequate ______ to control the _______ .

A) superego; ego
B) ego; id
C) ego; superego
D) libido; ego

Question 33

According to a study conducted at Temple University along one stretch of Interstate 95, 75% of traffic violations were by Whites, yet 80% of searches were of minorities. This is an example of

A) primary deviance.
B) secondary deviance.
C) radical nonintervention.
D) racial profiling.

Question 34

Victim blamers contend that African Americans are more likely than Whites to be incarcerated because they have high rates of illegitimacy, a high proportion of transient males, and their families have matriarchal structures. What does this approach ignore?

A) That Whites are more likely to be incarcerated than African Americans
B) The pervasive effects of racism in the United States
C) That this is actually a system-blaming approach
D) The victim blamers are psychologically deprived

Question 35

_____ is the view of deviant behavior that stresses the importance of the society in defining what is illegal and in assigning deviant status to particular individuals, which in turn dominates their identities and behaviors.

A) Conflict theory
B) Labeling theory
C) Order theory
D) Social Darwinism

Question 36

According to labeling theory, a person being labeled as a deviant is

A) a matter of luck.
B) a type of random selection.
C) a result of systematic social bias against the powerless.
D) necessary to prevent crime and protect the status quo.

Question 37

For people found guilty of murder, the most severe sentences are handed out when the victim is _____ and the perpetrator is _____.

A) Black; White
B) White; Black
C) Hispanic; Black
D) Black; Black

Question 38

The concept of _____ is the view that the poor are qualitatively different in values and lifestyles from the rest of society, and that these cultural differences explain continued poverty and deviance.

A) cultural transmission
B) stigmatization
C) the culture of poverty
D) cultural deprivation

Question 39

_____ is a public, nonviolent breach of the law with the purpose of calling attention to unfair laws or practices.

A) Corporate crime
B) Civil disobedience
C) Individual deviance
D) Radical nonintervention

Question 40

The person-blame approach results in the advantaged segments of society

A) retaining their advantages.
B) losing their advantages.
C) blaming others for their problems.
D) blaming the poor for higher taxes.

Question 41

Which of the following is NOT a strength of the conflict perspective on deviance?

A) Emphasis on the relationship between political order and nonconformity
B) Recognition of the importance of individuals taking responsibility for their choices and the consequences of those choices
C) Understanding that the most powerful groups use the political order to protect their interests
D) Recognition that the institutional framework of society is the source of so many social problems

Question 42

A strength of the labeling theory is that it

A) concentrates on the role of societal reaction in the creation of deviance.
B) focuses on the question of causation.
C) disregards undetected deviance.
D) realizes that the label is applied disproportionately to the powerful.

Question 43

The _____ perspective on deviance has been criticized for its tendency to assume a conspiracy by the well-to-do and for proposing solutions that can only be achieved by completely changing our entire society.

A) deterministic
B) order
C) conflict
D) labeling

Question 44

The most serious deficiency of labeling theory is that it

A) insists that some people are dangerous.
B) focuses on some types of deviance but ignores others.
C) emphasizes the individual's responsibility for the deviant act.
D) is preoccupied with the crimes of the well-to-do.

Question 45

_____ theorists argue that deviance is not limited to troubled individuals, because organizations also can be deviant.

A) Conflict
B) Order
C) Labeling
D) Interaction

Question 46

_____ is the illegal and/or socially harmful behaviors that result from deliberate decision making by corporate executives for the benefit of their organizations.

A) Political deviance
B) Corporate crime
C) Street crime
D) Secondary deviance

Question 47

What type of crime is defined very differently by order theorists and conflict theorists?

A) Political
B) Property
C) Street
D) Interpersonal

Question 48

One of the factors related to criminologist Jeffrey Reiman's statement,"Prison produces more criminals than it cures," is

A) educational programs in prison are overfunded and therefore unsuccessful.
B) the kind of person who gets sent to prison will become a criminal sooner or later.
C) inmates prefer living in prison to having to support themselves on the outside.
D) prisons provide learning experiences for prisoners in the art of crime.

Question 49

_____ is a strategy of leaving juvenile delinquents alone as much as possible rather than giving them a negative label.

A) Radical nonintervention
B) Primary intervention
C) Strategic misdirection
D) Extreme nonlabeling

Question 50

The _____ approach to social problems focuses on laws and customs of society, which are seen as constructed to serve the powerful; consequently, the solution to deviance is to restructure society instead of rehabilitating the criminal.

A) conflict
B) order
C) labeling
D) differential