Deck 6: Social Structural Theories

Question 1

______ is characteristic of modern societies in which there is a high degree of occupational specialization.

A)communal solidarity
B)mechanical solidarity
C)natural solidarity
D)organic solidarity

Answer 1

D

Question 2

According to the tenets of institutional anomie theory, which of the following would be a useful policy goal?

A)address negative emotions through coping strategies
B)increase collective efficacy at the neighborhood level
C)increase legitimate economic opportunities in society
D)reduce the role of economic factors in other social institutions such as the family

Answer 2

D

Question 3

According to Merton's strain theory, a youth who responds to difficulties in school by ______ has engaged in conformity.

A)continuing to attend classes and cheat on exams
B)continuing to attend classes, even without the hope of success
C)dropping out and taking refuge in a life of drugs, alcohol and transience
D)studying harder in an effort to succeed

Answer 3

D

Question 4

______ refers to the breakdown of the power of informal community rules to regulate conduct.

A)focal concern
B)general strain
C)social disorganization
D)social ecology

Question 5

According to Cohen, the real problem to overcome is ______, not blocked opportunity.

A)mechanical solidarity
B)social disorganization
C)social inequalities
D)status frustration

Question 6

Walter Miller suggested that ______ is/are part of a value system and lifestyle that has emerged from the realities of life on the bottom rung of society.

A)status frustration
B)focal concerns
C)short-run hedonism
D)modes of adaptation

Question 7

A particular student wants to do well in school, but never seems to be able to earn higher than a D.In pursuit of academic success, the student begins to cheat on exams.This is most consistent with which form of adaptation in Merton's theory of strain?

A)conformity
B)innovation
C)rebellion
D)retreatism

Question 8

According to Cohen, difficulty adjusting to middle-class measuring rods can lead to

A)status frustration
B)focal concerns
C)short-run hedonism
D)modes of adaptation

Question 9

According to Messner and Rosenfeld, what is the answer to the high crime rate in the United States?

A)anomie
B)capitalism
C)decommodification
D)institutionalization

Question 10

Walter Miller's theory of focal concerns was based on the premise that

A)Access to illegitimate opportunities varies along with access to legitimate opportunities.
B)American culture is inherently criminogenic due to the value placed on economic success.
C)Lower-class individuals form counter-cultural beliefs in reaction to their status deprivation.
D)Lower-class values must be viewed on their own terms, not as negations of the middle class.

Question 11

______ exists in small, isolated, and self-sufficient pre-state societies in which individuals share common values and develops strong emotional ties to the collectivity.

A)communal solidarity
B)mechanical solidarity
C)natural solidarity
D)organic solidarity

Question 12

Identify the theorist(s) known for suggesting that crime is a normal and inevitable social phenomenon.

A)Shaw and McKay
B)Durkheim
C)Merton
D)Cloward and Ohlin

Question 13

According to Cloward and Ohlin, individuals who are born into an established and organized delinquent subculture join ______ gangs.

A)conflict
B)criminal
C)organized
D)retreatist

Question 14

With which theory is Robert Agnew associated?

A)strain theory
B)general strain theory
C)social disorganization theory
D)institutional strain theory

Question 15

Which term did Emile Durkheim coin to refer to normlessness, or a lack of rules, within society?

A)anomie
B)proletariat
C)rebellion
D)strain

Question 16

The first criminological theory to be developed in the United States was the human ecology theory, which came out of what was known as the ______ school.

A)Chicago
B)Las Vegas
C)New York
D)San Francisco

Question 17

Within Walter Miller's framework of focal concerns, ______ refers to the belief that the locus of control is external to oneself.

A)autonomy
B)excitement
C)fate
D)toughness

Question 18

If crime is caused by a breakdown of informal social controls, which of the following would be the most effective way to reduce crime?

A)provide coping strategies
B)increase collective efficacy
C)increase economic opportunities
D)decommodification

Question 19

Which of the following theorists is credited with the idea that strain results from a disjunction between goals and the legitimate means of attaining them?

A)Henry McKay
B)Robert Agnew
C)Robert Merton
D)Steven Messner

Question 20

Identify the theorist(s) known for positing that just as there are barriers to achieving legitimate success, there are also barriers to achieving illegitimate success.

A)Shaw and McKay
B)Durkheim
C)Merton
D)Cloward and Ohlin

Question 21

Monitoring of spontaneous play groups among children, willingness to intervene to prevent acts such as truancy, and the confrontation of persons who are disturbing public space are all examples of

A)collective efficacy
B)formal social control
C)contextual effect
D)informal social control

Question 22

How would an institutional anomie theorist explain the crime of bank robbery?

A)The offender must have come from a community that lacked informal social controls.
B)The offender engaged in innovation to reach a legitimate goal through illegitimate means.
C)The offender was influenced by America's strong cultural emphasis on economic success.
D)The offender did not have coping mechanisms in place to adequately deal with their negative emotions.

Question 23

According to the research presented by Osgood and Chambers, the most critical element of social disorganization in nonmetropolitan communities appears to be:

A)family disruption
B)residential instability
C)economic status
D)ethnic diversity

Question 24

The concept of negative emotions is central to which theory?

A)differential opportunity theory
B)focal concerns theory
C)general strain theory
D)institutional anomie theory

Question 25

A high school student steals money from a classmate's locker.How would strain theory account for this crime?

A)The offender must have come from a community that lacked informal social controls.
B)The offender engaged in innovation to reach a legitimate goal through illegitimate means.
C)The offender was influenced by America's strong cultural emphasis on economic success.
D)The offender did not have coping mechanisms in place to adequately deal with their negative emotions.

Question 26

Which mode of adaptation is characterized by the rejection of legitimate cultural goals and the institutionalized means of attaining them?

A)conformity
B)innovation
C)retreatism
D)ritualism

Question 27

The ______ perspective views society as a system of mutually sustaining parts and characterized by broad normative consensus.

A)consensus
B)conflict
C)classical
D)structural

Question 28

Affluent neighborhoods possess ______ collective efficacy.

A)strong
B)weak
C)no
D)complete

Question 29

Which of Miller's focal concerns means personal freedom?

A)toughness
B)excitement
C)autonomy
D)smartness

Question 30

The zone inhabited by newly arrived individuals looking for work where social changes leading to delinquency mostly occurred was known as

A)social disorganization
B)the transition zone
C)the ghetto zone
D)the poverty zone

Question 31

Adaptation I

A)is the least common
B)is narrowly diffused
C)refers to the rejection of goals and means
D)refers to conformity to both culture goals and means

Question 32

Which of the following is one of the variables that social disorganization theory specifies as influencing a community's capacity to develop and maintain strong systems of social relationships?

A)ethnic diversity
B)family disruption
C)population size or density
D)all of these

Question 33

Inadequate socialization will result in the ______ response whereby the conflict and frustration are eliminated by relinquishing the institutional means and retaining the success-aspiration.

A)innovation
B)ritualist
C)rebellion
D)retreatist

Question 34

Which of the following is the most common mode of adaptation?

A)ritualism
B)innovation
C)retreatism
D)conformity

Question 35

According to Shaw and McKay, residential instability referred to

A)mixes of people from different cultural backgrounds
B)a high rate of turnover in the population
C)inability of community members to achieve shared values
D)lack of collective efficacy in a community

Question 36

Adaptation II

A)is the most common
B)refers to conformity to both culture goals and means
C)refers to the rejection of goals and means
D)is widely diffused

Question 37

Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory is part of which theoretical tradition?

A)life course
B)social ecology
C)social process
D)subculture

Question 38

How people as a group rather than individuals are able to prevent crimes is known as

A)collective efficacy
B)individual efficacy
C)contextual effect
D)individual effect

Question 39

Which of the following is a gang function for many of its members?

A)family
B)protective agency
C)educational institution
D)all of these

Question 40

______ is the shared power of a group of connected and engaged individuals to influence the maintenance of public order.

A)collective efficacy
B)group efficacy
C)mechanical solidarity
D)organic solidarity

Question 41

Mechanical solidarity is characterized by high degrees of occupational specialization, and a diversity of experiences and circumstances.

Question 42

According to Messner and Rosenfeld, high crime rates are intrinsic to American culture.

Question 43

Which of the following structural shifts produced the by-product of increasing the length of time of gang member participation?

A)mass incarceration
B)immigration
C)monopoly behavior
D)blue collar expansion

Question 44

An increase in gangs in contemporary cities has been attributable to the loss of manufacturing jobs within the United States.

Question 45

Structural theorists are interested in seeking the social causes of crime rates, rather than why particular individuals commit crime.

Question 46

Shaw and McKay are known for identifying six focal concerns as the source of crime in lower class communities.

Question 47

Merton's strain theory posits that gang behavior can be attributed to six focal concerns that are part of a lower-class value system.

Question 48

The same things that predict an increase in collective efficacy are the same things that predict an increase in social disorganization.

Question 49

Sanchez-Jankowski defines gangs as

A)organized defiant individualism
B)criminal defiant individualism
C)loose associations
D)individual entities

Question 50

According to Cohen, lower-class youth desire approval and status, but because they cannot meet middle-class criteria, they become frustrated.

Question 51

Sanchez-Jankowski identified five critical periods that have affected the social and organizational development of gangs over the last 150 years.Common to all five periods were two factors

A)increase in ethnic diversity and residential instability
B)population increase and poverty
C)poverty and decrease in socioeconomic mobility
D)decrease in ethnic diversity and socioeconomic mobility

Question 52

Anomie/strain theory is most applicable to violent crimes, not those committed for financial gain.

Question 53

According to strain theory, individuals who accept traditional goals, but reject the accepted means of achieving them, are known as rebels.

Question 54

Those who reject both cultural goals and the institutionalized means of attaining them are known as retreatists.

Question 55

Shaw and McKay noted that the majority of delinquents always came from the same neighborhood regardless of the ethnic composition of those neighborhoods.

Question 56

Focal concerns theory is most concerned with the impact of stress and negative emotionality on behavior.

Question 57

According to general strain theory, we all experience multiple strains throughout our lives, but the impact of strain differs according to its magnitude, recency, duration, and clustering.

Question 58

According to strain theory, individuals who reject traditional goals but continue to work within legitimate bounds are identified as ritualists.

Question 59

The first criminological theory to be developed in the United States was the Chicago school of human ecology.

Question 60

Durkheim argued that crime is normal, inevitable, and socially useful.

Question 61

Describe the two ways in which social disorganization impacts crime and delinquency.

Question 62

Briefly explain the distinction between mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity.

Question 63

Retreatist gang members are more escapist in their attitudes than conflict gang members in that almost all of the abuse drugs and/or alcohol.

Question 64

What is social disorganization?

Question 65

According to Merton, proscribed behavior becomes increasingly rare when the emphasis on the culturally induced success-goal becomes divorced from a coordinate institutional emphasis.

Question 66

After reaching a population density of 4,000 juveniles in a county, population size had a significant effect on the rate of juvenile violence.

Question 67

Identify three of the lower-class focal concerns proposed by Walter Miller.

Question 68

Mass incarceration has resulted in street gangs becoming more assimilated into prison gangs.

Question 69

According to Robert Merton's theory, what causes strain?

Question 70

Reports of neighborhood violence depended to some degree on personal background with higher levels of violence reported by those who were separated or divorced and younger respondents.

Question 71

Agnew and his colleagues found that individuals with low levels of negative emotionality and high levels of constraint were most likely to respond to strain with criminal behavior.

Question 72

The analysis by Osgood and Chambers did not find a meaningful relationship between rates of delinquency and rates of poverty.

Question 73

Anomie is a term meaning normlessness.

Question 74

Describe the central argument of institutional anomie theory.

Question 75

The results of the analysis suggested that collective efficacy is an important construct that can be measured reliably at the neighborhood level.

Question 76

What is collective efficacy?

Question 77

Define rebellion in regards to Merton's modes of adaptation.

Question 78

Nearly all gang members have a defiant individualist personality.

Question 79

Identify and describe two modes of adaptation from Merton's strain theory.

Question 80

According to Merton, aberrant conduct may be viewed as a symptom of dissociation between culturally defined aspirations and socially structured means.