Deck 1: Understanding Crime and Criminology

Question 1

'Critical criminologists' argue for a change of focus away from 'crime' towards 'social harm'.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

When did 'criminology' first emerge as an academic discipline in Britain?

Answer 2

The first lectures under the banner of 'criminology' in Britain were delivered in 1921-22 in Birmingham to postgraduate medical students. At that time 'criminology' in the UK primarily involved psychiatrists. It was quite unlike the much more sociologically-influenced subject that it became by the 1970s and, to a significant extent, remains today. The journal, Sociological Review, was established in 1908 and carried nothing that was obviously criminological until the late 1930s.

Question 3

What is meant by 'penal populism' (Pratt, 2007) or 'populist punitiveness' (Bottoms, 1995)?

Answer 3

This is an approach to crime and penal policy in which particular policy positions are 'normally adopted in the clear belief that they will be popular with the public (and usually with an awareness that, in general and abstract opinion polls, punitive policies are favoured by a majority of the public …) Hence, the term "populist punitiveness" is intended to convey the notion of politicians tapping into, and using for their own purposes, what they believe to be the public's generally punitive stance' (Bottoms 1995: 40)

Question 4

How has centralisation of the criminal justice system said to be manifest?

A)the gradual accretion of power to the centre in relation to police
B)prisons are now much larger
C)the creation of The National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
D)the use of the Police National Computer system

Question 5

What is said to have led to the end of the 'bipartisan consensus' on policing, crime and punishment?

A)the end of the second world war
B)the election of the first Thatcher government
C)the rise of managerialism
D)declining faith in the idea of rehabilitation

Question 6

How has globalisation had an impact on the question 'what is crime'?

A)more people now work abroad
B)money and goods can be transported more easily
C)there is no international consensus as to what constitutes 'crimes' in the international arena
D)securing international co-operation against particular states is often very difficult to achieve

Question 7

What are the four major lines of criticism that differentiate definitions of 'crime' from 'social harm'?

A)Crime has no ontological reality
B)Criminology perpetuates the myth of crime
C)White collar crimes are the most serious
D)Crime consists of many petty events
E)Crime excludes many serious harms

Question 8

In defining criminology there are arguably three great tributaries that make up the subject:

A)The study of crime
B)How cities have grown since the nineteenth century
C)The study of those who commit crime
D)The study of the criminal justice and penal systems

Question 9

What does it mean to say that crime, and the study of crime, occurs within a social and political context?

A)Politicians are often corrupt
B)Social class is one of the main definers of crime
C)What we think about crime, and what we think we know about crime, reflects the times in which we live
D)Criminologists are often socialists

Question 10

What period in British history is often referred to as 'the permissive age'?

A)1940s
B)1960s
C)1800s
D)2000s

Question 11

What is meant by 'criminalisation'?

A)the way the law is constructed
B)the police make up evidence
C)the labelling of certain acts and people as criminal
D)society is unequal

Question 12

Crime is:

A)an infraction of the criminal law
B)a sin
C)a problem of class and ethnicity
D)a means of escaping the labelling of certain acts

Question 13

For much of the second half of the twentieth century British criminology has been dominated by:

A)history
B)politics
C)sociology
D)archaeology

Question 14

There is no direct link between crime rates and types and levels of punishment.

Question 15

Crime is socially constructed, politically-influenced and historically variable.

Question 16

There are universal values on what constitutes 'rights' on the one hand and 'crimes' on the other.

Question 17

Labelling theory distances itself from the view that defining someone as criminal somehow represents some natural order of events.

Question 18

What characterises the profound shift in British Criminology over the past 20 years?