Deck 6: Conformity, deviance, and Crime

Question 1

A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior is called a:

A) conditioned response
B) symbolic response
C) sanction
D) norm

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following statements related to the biological view of deviance is true?

A) Some of the first attempts to explain crime emphasized biological factors.
B) Cesare Lombroso's claims have been supported by a large body of subsequent research.
C) Nearly all studies claiming a relationship between body type and delinquency have used samples that are representative of the general population.
D) A correlation between body type and delinquency shows that one's body type causes criminal behavior.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In Robert Merton's typology,the majority of people in society are:

A) conformists
B) innovators
C) ritualists
D) retreatists

Answer 3

A

Question 4

According to Robert Merton,at a time when society as a whole is becoming more affluent,why do crime rates continue to rise?

A) a sense of relative deprivation among those at the bottom
B) inadequate socialization of the poor
C) the rise of deviant subcultures
D) the ability of communities to afford more police officers

Question 5

Which of the following statements is NOT true about psychopaths?

A) Psychopaths are withdrawn,emotionless characters who delight in violence for its own sake.
B) Psychopaths lack the moral sense and concern for others most normal people hold.
C) People with psychopathic traits are inevitably criminal.
D) Nearly all studies of people said to possess psychopathic characteristics have been of convicted prisoners.

Question 6

Which of the following statements concerning hackers is true?

A) Kevin Mitnick has been described as the "world's most celebrated computer hacker."
B) Hackers consider themselves to be criminals.
C) Most activities that hackers engage in are criminal.
D) The hacker community largely agrees with how it is perceived by the public.

Question 7

A subculture whose members hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority is called:

A) a social control group
B) a deviant subculture
C) a median subculture
D) a normative subculture

Question 8

Theorizing that terrorists have a certain personality profile is an example of which view of deviance?

A) biological view
B) psychological view
C) sociological view
D) evolutionary view

Question 9

In Robert Merton's typology,drug dealers would be considered:

A) conformists
B) innovators
C) ritualists
D) retreatists

Question 10

What did the Heaven's Gate cult and the computer hacker community have in common?

A) Both are religious groups.
B) Both groups are considered deviant subcultures.
C) Both groups struggled financially.
D) Both groups restricted their membership to men.

Question 11

Referring to the recent study mentioned in your textbook of New Zealand children that investigated whether a child's propensity for aggression was linked to biological factors present at birth,with which statement would those researchers most likely agree?

A) There is no such thing as a genetic predisposition.
B) There are genetic predispositions,but they have no impact on human behavior.
C) A baby with a genetic predisposition for alcoholism would not likely become a problem drinker if his or her social environment provided few opportunities to drink.
D) There is a genetic predisposition for alcoholism that will cause those with that predisposition to become alcoholics,regardless of environment.

Question 12

A veteran police officer's criticism of a rookie police officer for not acting aggressively enough during an altercation with a suspect is an example of a:

A) positive formal sanction
B) negative formal sanction
C) positive informal sanction
D) negative informal sanction

Question 13

__________ are norms governments define as principles that their citizens must follow; a __________ is any type of behavior that violates these norms.

A) Laws; crime
B) Informal codes; breach
C) Taboos; sin
D) Guidelines; deviation

Question 14

The term used to describe modes of action that do not conform to the norms or values most members of a group or society hold is:

A) anomie
B) alienation
C) conformity
D) deviance

Question 15

Which of the following disciplines tends to NOT place the source of deviant behavior exclusively within an individual?

A) neuroscience
B) genetics
C) sociology
D) psychology

Question 16

According to your textbook authors,which statement concerning deviance is NOT true?

A) All lawbreakers are deviants in all social contexts.
B) We are all rule creators.
C) Some people are deviant because they are incapable of following the rules.
D) We are all rule breakers.

Question 17

Which of the following statements would Émile Durkheim DISAGREE with?

A) People in the modern age are highly controlled by social expectations.
B) Deviance is necessary for society.
C) Deviance can contribute to the stability of society.
D) Deviance in an innovative force.

Question 18

Which of the following statements does NOT represent the sociological perspective on deviance?

A) Crime is a personal choice that is not shaped by social context.
B) Definitions of deviance vary based on social context.
C) Crime depends on the social institutions of a society.
D) Crime results from lack of moral regulation within society.

Question 19

The term that describes rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of situations is:

A) value
B) belief
C) sanction
D) norm

Question 20

A concept Émile Durkheim brought into wide usage in sociology,__________,refers to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior.

A) egoism
B) altruism
C) fatalism
D) anomie

Question 21

From the perspective of the new criminology,laws:

A) are neutral
B) are applied evenly across the population
C) are used by the powerful to maintain their own privileged positions
D) protect the working class from being exploited by the capitalist elite

Question 22

Fifteen-year-old Diego is arrested and spends thirty days in juvenile detention.He begins to see himself as a delinquent while there.When he is released,he commits more crimes.Edwin Lemert would consider the crimes Diego commits after being released:

A) primary deviance
B) secondary deviance
C) tertiary deviance
D) anomic deviance

Question 23

From the perspective of labeling theory,deviance is seen as:

A) a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants
B) a set of characteristics of individuals or groups
C) freely chosen
D) an act that is universally wrong

Question 24

Which of the following statements is NOT reflective of control theory?

A) You have a strong attachment to friends who value good grades and hard work; therefore you value good grades and hard work.
B) You are a high school dropout,so you have little to lose by being arrested.
C) School and work keep you constantly busy,so you have little time to spend engaged in deviant activities.
D) You engage in deviance as a political act.

Question 25

At what age is a person most likely to be arrested for a crime?

A) 13 or 14
B) 18 or 19
C) 25 or 26
D) 35 or 36

Question 26

Which of the following statements concerning the Uniform Crime Reports is NOT true?

A) The reports contain official data reported to law enforcement agencies.
B) The reports focus on index crimes.
C) The reports accurately reflect crime rates.
D) The reports include only those crimes reported to law enforcement agencies.

Question 27

Which factor was NOT mentioned in your textbook as contributing to the decline of crime rates in the 1990s?

A) aggressive law enforcement
B) a declining market for crack cocaine
C) the stigmatization of crack among young urban dwellers
D) changes in welfare laws

Question 28

Which theory would Karl Marx agree with the most?

A) strain theory
B) differential association theory
C) control theory
D) conflict theory

Question 29

According to the textbook,violent crime is more common:

A) in suburbs than in cities or small towns
B) in small towns than in cities or suburbs
C) today than in the early 1990s
D) in the United States than in Switzerland

Question 30

Two groups of boys,one working class and the other middle class,engage in equal amounts of delinquent activities.One group is considered "just boys being boys," and the other is considered "troublemakers." Which of the following theories best explains this difference?

A) strain theory
B) differential association theory
C) control theory
D) labeling theory

Question 31

Which theory proposes that we become deviant when exposed to a higher level of deviant persons and influences,compared with conventional influences?

A) labeling theory
B) strain theory
C) differential association theory
D) control theory

Question 32

In 2011,what percentage of people in jail were men?

A) 30 percent
B) 45 percent
C) 67 percent
D) 93 percent

Question 33

The National Crime Victimization Survey has found that crime rates are:

A) social constructions
B) actually higher than those reported by official agencies
C) actually lower than those reported by official agencies
D) about the same as those reported by official agencies,confirming the accuracy of those reports

Question 34

Which researcher found that boys in the lower working class who are frustrated with their positions in life often joined in delinquent subcultures that rejected middle-class values and replaced them with norms that celebrate defiance?

A) Albert Cohen
B) Robert Merton
C) Émile Durkheim
D) Kingsley Davis

Question 35

According to differential association theory,who is more likely to be a delinquent?

A) a poor person whose friends do not commit crime
B) a middle-class person whose friends frequently commit crime
C) a person with high aspirations but few opportunities
D) a person with low aspirations but many opportunities

Question 36

A survey of homeless youth in Canada shows a strong correlation between hunger,lack of shelter,and unemployment,on the one hand,and theft,prostitution,and even violent crime on the other.Whose theory of delinquency best explains this relationship?

A) Howard Becker
B) Richard A.Cloward and Lloyd E.Ohlin
C) Edwin H.Sutherland
D) Travis Hirschi

Question 37

Which of the following statements concerning youth and crime is NOT true?

A) As young people gradually transition into adulthood,they acquire social attachments and commitments that make conventional behavior rewarding.
B) Most youthful deviants go on to become career criminals.
C) Trends in drug use have shifted away from hard drugs,such as heroin,toward combinations of substances,such as amphetamines,prescription drugs such as OxyContin,alcohol,Ritalin and other stimulants.
D) When crack cocaine appeared in the 1980s,the media quickly defined it as the drug of choice for black,inner-city kids who listened to hip-hop.

Question 38

Crime typically carried out by people in the more affluent sectors of society is called:

A) organized crime
B) white-collar crime
C) serial crime
D) index crime

Question 39

Which theory views crime as the outcome of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and the social or physical controls that deter it?

A) labeling theory
B) strain theory
C) differential association theory
D) control theory

Question 40

Which of the following statements concerning victims and perpetrators of crime is true?

A) Men are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared with women.
B) Older people are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared with young people.
C) Whites are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared with African Americans.
D) Residents of the suburbs are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared with inner-city residents.

Question 41

Which theory served as the basis for new policing strategies in the late 1980s and 1990s that aggressively focused on minor crimes,such as traffic violations and drinking and using drugs in public?

A) control theory
B) broken windows theory
C) conflict theory
D) differential association theory

Question 42

Which of the following statements concerning white-collar crime is NOT true?

A) The amount of money involved in crimes against property (robberies,burglaries,larceny,forgeries,and car thefts)is forty times greater than the amount involved in white-collar crimes.
B) Authorities regard white-collar crime in a more tolerant light than crimes of the less privileged.
C) Rarely do people caught committing white-collar crime go to jail.
D) The manufacture or sale of dangerous products is a type of white-collar crime.

Question 43

Which of the following is an example of organized crime Manuel Castells described?

A) Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme
B) heroin networks that stretch across Asia
C) prison gangs
D) inner-city youth gangs

Question 44

Which of the following statements about prisons is true?

A) The cost to keep a prisoner in the federal prison system for one is year is very low,about $6,000 per year.
B) Spending time in prison makes it unlikely that the ex-felon will ever commit another crime.
C) Spending time in prison often makes the ex-felon a more hardened criminal.
D) The average convict serves most of his sentence.

Question 45

Which of the following is NOT a latent consequence of target hardening?

A) Because the wealthy are protected from crime,there is a declining interest in understanding the causes of crime.
B) Criminals target less affluent areas that cannot afford the protective measures to combat crime.
C) A fortress mentality develops among the wealthy to shield them from criminals.
D) Target hardening fixes the underlying causes of crime.

Question 46

Which of the following best illustrates community policing?

A) taking seriously even minor crimes,such as public drunkenness
B) community organizations,government agencies,and businesses working together to help repair urban decay
C) the installation of burglar alarms
D) public shaming of offenders

Question 47

Forms of activity that have some of the characteristics of orthodox business but are illegal are called:

A) white-collar crime
B) corporate crime
C) index crime
D) organized crime

Question 48

The term that describes practical measures used to limit a criminal's ability to commit crime is:

A) deviance control
B) differential associating
C) broken windows fixing
D) target hardening

Question 49

Putting locks on mailboxes is an example of:

A) deviance control
B) differential control
C) New Left realism
D) target hardening

Question 50

Which of the following factors would sociologists consider LEAST related to high rates of violent crime?

A) widespread poverty
B) the conditions of the inner cities
C) the deteriorating life circumstances of many young men
D) insufficient number of prisons

Question 51

How might shaming work to rehabilitate an offender?

A) It locks the offender in a permanent state of shame.
B) It lets the offender deny any wrongdoing.
C) It processes the shame in the offender in such a way that social bonds between the offender and the community can be rebuilt.
D) It processes the shame in the offender such that he or she will be much more fearful of committing another crime.

Question 52

An experiment by sociologist Devah Pager showed that __________ is most likely to be hired.

A) a white man with no criminal record
B) a white man with a criminal record
C) a black man with no criminal record
D) a black man with a criminal record

Question 53

Which of the following best describes Americans' beliefs about capital punishment?

A) The majority of Americans have always supported capital punishment.
B) The majority of Americans have always opposed capital punishment.
C) The majority of adults supported capital punishment in 2012.
D) Most adults supported capital punishment in 1965.

Question 54

Offenses committed by large corporations in society are called:

A) elite crime
B) bureaucratic crime
C) corporate crime
D) crime syndicate

Question 55

Which of the following is NOT an example of corporate crime?

A) A pesticide company dumps pollutants into the local river.
B) A food manufacturer puts false nutrition information on its product labels.
C) An automobile company manufactures and knowingly sells an SUV that rolls over easily.
D) An organized crime group engages in sex trafficking.

Question 56

A way of punishing criminal and deviant behavior based on rituals of public disapproval rather than incarceration is called:

A) deviance control
B) differential control
C) target hardening
D) shaming

Question 57

According to the textbook,police work traditionally consisted of controlling crime.Increasingly,however,police officers are more accurately described as:

A) deviants who are committing rather than preventing crime
B) corrections officers who are herding criminals to prison
C) knowledge workers who are mapping,predicting,and reporting on risk within the population
D) safety patrollers who are guarding the health and welfare of citizens

Question 58

Which theory best explains why a neighborhood that had only minor problems,such as abandoned cars and graffiti,began to see an increase in other more serious types of property crime?

A) control theory
B) broken windows theory
C) conflict theory
D) differential association theory

Question 59

Which of the following countries has the highest incarceration rate?

A) China
B) Japan
C) France
D) United States

Question 60

A renewed emphasis on crime prevention rather than law enforcement to reintegrate policing within the community is called:

A) organized policing
B) corporate policing
C) community policing
D) target hardening

Question 61

How is it possible that a person can be both a conformist and a deviant? Explain using examples.

Question 62

Why have efforts to decrease the supply of illegal drugs significantly in the United States failed?

Question 63

What is the biological view of deviance? What are some of the weaknesses of this approach?

Question 64

Compare the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)with victimization surveys,such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).Which method gives a better indication of the level of crime in the United States?

Question 65

How does crime affect the lives of people who have little contact with the criminal justice system as victim or offender? Explain using examples.

Question 66

Apply control theory to explain why people in their late teens are more likely to commit crime than older people.

Question 67

Discuss the ways in which deviance is functional.Give examples.

Question 68

How does Robert Merton explain crime? How would Merton explain the crimes committed in the inner city?

Question 69

Compare and contrast differential association theory with control theory.Which theory do you think better explains crime? Explain.

Question 70

Those who study the functions of deviance would probably NOT refer to which example as a function that deviance performs?

A) Deviants help us understand what is considered right and wrong.
B) We try very hard to avoid the sanctions that result from doing wrong.
C) We try to avoid deviance so that we will not be treated as social outcasts.
D) Noncriminals learn from experienced criminals how to commit crime.

Question 71

Which of the following statements concerning the criminal justice system would your textbook authors most DISAGREE with?

A) The cost of the criminal justice system is increasing.
B) The number of people behind bars has increased in the past decade.
C) Few of us are affected by the high cost of crime.
D) Taxes would have to be raised to pay for the high cost of the criminal justice system.

Question 72

In 1982,states spent $15 billion on corrections.In 2010,states spent _____.

A) $18.5 billion
B) $28.5 billion
C) $38.5 billion
D) $48.5 billion

Question 73

Compare and contrast labeling theory with the new criminology perspective.Which theory do you think better explains crime? Explain.