Deck 5: Governmental Crime: State Crime and Political White Collar Crime

Question 1

Which of the following is not a valid general statement about human rights?

A) The idea of human rights is rooted in an ancient tradition, with the Bible as one early source.
B) The modern understanding of human rights is principally product of the writing of Enlightenment philosophers.
C) Until World War I the matter of human rights was essentially a domestic concern.
D) The United Nations has been very successful in imposing fundamental human rights standards on the world's governments.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following was not a key element in the Marcos family's accumulation of a corrupt fortune in the Philippines?

A) putting relatives and cronies in charge of state agencies
B) counterfeiting money
C) extracting kickbacks for awarding state contracts
D) achieving dominance over the judiciary and the media

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following was not a repressive state involving dictators and deprivation of fundamental human rights?

A) The Iran of the Shah
B) The Nicaragua of Somoza
C) The South Africa of Mandela
D) The Cuba of Castro

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Governmental crime, as distinct from the traditional notion of political crime, is exemplified by:

A) treason
B) state-agency illegal surveillance
C) draft-dodging
D) illegal protests

Question 5

The term My Lai refers to:

A) an illegal narcotics operation
B) American defense of South Vietnamese from Vietcong terrorists
C) a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by American troops American troops
D) a notorious Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp

Question 6

Which group has not been a historical victim of genocide?

A) Armenians in Turkey
B) Germans in North Africa
C) Hutus in Burundi (and Rwanda)
D) urbanites and the intelligentsia in Cambodia

Question 7

American forces in Vietnam were accused of all but which of the following?

A) Dropping napalm during air strikes
B) Burning villages
C) Gassing people to death in concentration camps
D) Bombing hospitals and dikes

Question 8

The view of anarchists is best characterized as holding that:

A) the state is by its very nature a criminal enterprise
B) Columbus' "conquest of paradise" was a crime
C) the slave trade was the worst crime in history
D) wars are never justified

Question 9

The most famous trial for war crimes, and crimes against humanity, took place in:

A) Moscow
B) Beijing
C) Nuremberg
D) London

Question 10

Since World War II the claim of corruption at the core of the state has:

A) applied to a very limited number of states
B) principally focused on states in the industrialized West
C) been especially directed at Third World nations
D) not contributed to the downfall of regimes

Question 11

Which of the following terms applies to illegal activities carried out by officials and politicians for direct personal gain?

A) Governmental crime
B) State crime
C) Political white collar crime
D) Corruption crime

Question 12

Which of the following statements about repressive states is accurate?

A) White South Africa shared with Nazi Germany extermination of a people as a central objective.
B) Repression of rights is exclusively associated with dictators.
C) Repression of rights and economic exploitation do not both occur within a single state.
D) The United States historically tolerated or supported repressive right-wing regimes while condemning repressive left-wing regimes.

Question 13

Genocide is a term which most commonly refers to:

A) major casualties during military combat
B) any state policy which involves the deliberate taking of human lives
C) a deliberate state policy of mass killing directed at some identifiable group of people
D) state sanctioned passive euthanasia

Question 14

How many people died in the 20ᵗʰ century worldwide, by some estimates, as a result of deliberate state actions?

A) 35 million
B) 70 million
C) 350 million
D) 700 million

Question 15

Political scandals are most likely to occur in but which of the following circumstances?

A) When there is a basic division of power in society
B) Where there is an absence of a major external threat to the society
C) When power in the society is highly centralized
D) When politicians violate norms of proper conduct in political office

Question 16

According to the text, many repressive countries impose _____ on their citizens: i.e., debts from foreign loans that were knowingly made to repressive regimes.

A) odious debt
B) repressive debt
C) forgivable debt
D) foreign debt

Question 17

Reasons for the relative neglect of governmental crime by criminologists would include all but which of the following?

A) The challenge of gaining access to the politically powerful.
B) Some ideological resistance to regarding governmental actors as criminal.
C) The perception that the consequences of governmental crime are quite limited.
D) The complexity and broad scope of the illegalities involved.

Question 18

The broadest term associated with governmental crime is:

A) abuse of power
B) corruption
C) bribery
D) political scandal

Question 19

The notion of a "nuclear winter" refers to:

A) the environmental impact of an exchange of nuclear weapons
B) a period of maximum vulnerability to a nuclear war
C) the protective elements of winter, in the event of nuclear war
D) the occasion of a major nuclear disarmament treaty

Question 20

After Suharto, who allegedly acquired $73 billion during his 32 years as president of Indonesia, was forced out of office in 1998, he and his family:

A) had warrants for their arrest issued by an international court for defrauding their government
B) were bankrupt
C) were believed to have still been in control of some $15 billion
D) asked for political refugee status in several western countries, including the U.S.

Question 21

Which of the following is not true of Watergate?

A) The term Watergate has been used to refer to both a specific incident and a range of abuses by the Nixon Administration
B) The Nixon White House initially dismissed the break-in at the Watergate as a "third rate burglary"
C) Only low-level Nixon Re-election Committee personnel, but no high-level White House officials, went to prison in connection with Watergate
D) Nixon was pardon and excused from criminal liability in the Watergate matter by his successor, Gerald Ford

Question 22

Which of the following is not an example of state-organized crime?

A) illegal state surveillance of citizens
B) CIA-arranged assassinations
C) CIA agents selling classified information for money
D) state-agency sponsorship of terrorists

Question 23

In the U.S., state negligence is least likely to be alleged in connection with:

A) black infant mortality
B) deaths by drowning
C) AIDS-related deaths
D) homelessness

Question 24

Following J.Edgar Hoover's death in 1972, the FBI was accused of having engaged in all but which of the following during Hoover's tenure as FBI Director?

A) Using informants as agent provocateurs to instigate illegal actions by dissident groups
B) Gathering political intelligence for partisan purposes
C) Masterminding the Watergate break-in
D) Implicit and explicit blackmail, with Martin Luther King as one target

Question 25

According to the text, the extraordinary hypocrisy of the HUD scandal during the Reagan Administration is exemplified by the fact that:

A) no one was convicted for any offenses despite evidence that many crimes occurred
B) only one official who actually gave all the money she stole to the homeless was sent to prison
C) an administration which campaigned against big government and government waste engaged in large scale waste, and programs intended to assist poor
Americans were milked by wealthy individuals
D) only homeless people but no hardworking private developers benefited from the corrupt activity

Question 26

A 1970s Congressional investigation charged the CIA with all but which of the following offenses?

A) Illegal opening of U. S. mail over a period of years
B) Prohibited surveillance of domestic dissidents
C) Spying on foreign nations
D) Assisting in bribing and blackmailing foreign leaders

Question 27

Malfeasance is best defined as:

A) failing to do something you are required to do
B) failing to prevent loss of human life
C) performing a permissible act in an improper manner
D) doing something you are prohibited from doing

Question 28

The special FBI unit which engaged in the extralegal and illegal disruption and destabilizing of dissident political groups was known as:

A) The FBI Plumbers Unit
B) COINTELPRO
C) RICOINTEL
D) The Hippie Patrol

Question 29

The Lexow Commission, the Knapp Commission, and the Mollen Commission all found:

A) significant evidence of corruption among New York City police officers over a hundred year period
B) only rare, if serious, incidences of corruption among New York City police officers
C) an early lack of corruption among New York City police officers, followed by increased corruption in recent years
D) corruption among New York City police officers in earlier times, but not more recently

Question 30

A negligent state is best defined as a state which:

A) fails to enforce the criminal laws effectively
B) fails to insure that all citizens enjoy improved standards of living
C) fails to prevent human suffering which it could in fact prevent
D) fails to effectively address the trade imbalance

Question 31

The "Dirty Harry" problem refers to:

A) police abuse of minority group members
B) the use of improper means by the police to achieve crime control ends
C) police perjury
D) police acceptance of bribes and kickbacks

Question 32

Which of the following is not a factor contributing to corruption in Third World African countries?

A) The absence of a civil service "work ethic"
B) Rapidly expanding economies
C) Extreme economic inequality
D) Cultural norms privileging tribal loyalties over integrity

Question 33

The 19ᵗʰ-century leader of New York City's Tammany Hall who went to prison after conviction on charges involving massive fraud was:

A) Ed Crump
B) William Marcy Tweed
C) James Michael Curley
D) Frank Hague

Question 34

The most comprehensive list of police crime would include:

A) violations of constitutional rights, excessive use of force, and related illegal acts to fulfill state or department directives
B) excessive use of force but no violations of constitutional rights
C) illegal wiretapping and surveillance
D) officer misconduct in the form of improperly accepting bribes

Question 35

Substantial personal corruption of high-level administration officers has been closely associated with all but which of the following presidential administrations?

A) Ulysses Grant
B) Woodrow Wilson
C) Warren Harding
D) Ronald Reagan

Question 36

The principal illegality alleged in the Iran-Contra arms scheme was a:

A) violation of the Boland Act, which had expressly prohibited covert aid to the Contras
B) violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits covert state-private enterprise deals
C) violation of the Second Amendment, pertaining to the right to bear arms
D) violation of a Presidential Finding

Question 37

Nonfeasance is best defined as:

A) doing something you are prohibited from doing
B) failing to do something you are required to do
C) performing a permissible act in an improper manner
D) not doing something you are prohibited from doing

Question 38

Which of the following is not an example of the state crime of government wastefulness?

A) Pork barrel projects
B) Lax loan collection
C) Inefficient subsidies
D) Building new military bases

Question 39

Misfeasance is best defined as:

A) not doing something you are prohibited from doing
B) performing a permissible act in an improper manner
C) doing something you are prohibited from doing
D) failing to do something you are required to do

Question 40

The "White House Plumbers Unit" were:

A) a citizens group which investigated White House Crimes
B) White House maintenance personnel who made fraudulent repairs
C) a group of White House-based operatives who engaged in illegal investigations
D) a White House-appointed committee which probed state corruption

Question 41

In one view, the American engagement Vietnam was illegal by American law,
because Congress never specifically declared war.

Question 42

Prosecution of state crime and political white collar crime is fairly easy, since the
fact that the accused are part of the law-making and law enforcement apparatus
makes them highly visible.

Question 43

Because political scandals tend to be person-centered, they do not necessarily
undercut the legitimacy of a political state.

Question 44

Which of the following factors has not been cited in support of the argument that urban political corruption declined in the course of the 20ᵗʰ century?

A) Civil service reforms (which reduced patronage)
B) The welfare state's displacement of urban machines
C) The increasing power of white ethnics
D) The increasing importance of television advertising (reducing the role of party organization)

Question 45

A major factor contributing to the New York City corruption scandals of the 1980s was:

A) a city fiscal crisis which led to a considerable expansion of private contracting for goods and services
B) a great growth in the power of city unions
C) the passing of laws which facilitated movement in and out of the private sector
D) a dramatic increase in the number of dishonest people in city government

Question 46

According to the text, most war crimes go unpunished.

Question 47

The American political leadership has only occasionally accepted judgments of an
international judiciary concerning its military actions.

Question 48

Such activities as the "discovery" of America by Columbus, the settling of the
American West, and the slave trade may involve historical controversies, but
cannot be called crimes in any sense.

Question 49

The vast criminal potential in the use of nuclear weapons has attracted much
systematic attention from criminologists.

Question 50

According to the text, the worst of all crimes in terms of physical harm to human
beings have been governmental crimes.

Question 51

Criminal prosecutions of judges are rarest on the _____ level.

A) municipal
B) county
C) state
D) federal

Question 52

The concept of political crime has been most typically associated with crimes
directed against the state, rather than on behalf of it.

Question 53

Although the specific definition of bribery varies among societies, the concept is new and is only a problem in our society.

Question 54

The terms political crime and political white collar crime can be used
interchangeably.

Question 55

Political corruption appears to be a modern phenomenon.

Question 56

Several corporate and occupational crimes have generated the level of public
attention directed at the Nuremberg Trials and Watergate hearings.

Question 57

Much of the harm caused by governments escapes formal classification as crime.

Question 58

The Credit Mobilier case principally involved:

A) a 19ᵗʰ-century bank which corrupted legislators
B) corruption of Congressional legislators by Political Action Committees
C) corruption of Congressmen in connection with the westward expansion of the Union Pacific railroad
D) Congressmen accepting bribes in return for parceling out jobs

Question 59

A prominent corruption case in which Congressmen were videotaped accepting bribes in an FBI "sting" was known as:

A) Watergate
B) Abscam
C) the House Post Office Scandal
D) Iran-Contra arms

Question 60

Bribery is a legal concept.

Question 61

Any political system can be turned into a repressive state, including Western
democracies.

Question 62

The wastefulness of many government programs can be regarded as crimes of
negligence.

Question 63

The overthrow of repressive dictatorships (e.g., in Iran and Nicaragua) lead
inevitably to the establishment of democratic, non-repressive states.

Question 64

The United Nations was formed partly in response to abuse of human rights by
totalitarian governments.

Question 65

Although the International Criminal Court was ratified by more than 70 nations,
the United States was not among them.

Question 66

Some claim that there are circumstances in which state agents are morally and
sometimes legally obliged not to comply with commands of higher state authority.

Question 67

The key aspect of the notion of a repressive state is the systematic deprivation of
fundamental human rights.

Question 68

Criminal trials against heads of states for offenses committed during acts of war,
became quite common after the Nuremberg trials.

Question 69

Ancient and early colonial governments often entered into cooperative
relationships with pirates.

Question 70

The trial of the surviving Nazi leadership after World War II was not
controversial, due to the scope of their crimes.

Question 71

Nazi Germany may be the single most prominent case of a state widely labeled as
criminal because its criminality was virtually its defining feature.

Question 72

The white collar crime of corruption is viewed by many citizens of Latin America as their most serious problem.

Question 73

One offense which President Nixon could not be charged with was authorization
of illegal wiretapping, insofar as the President has unlimited discretion to order
wiretaps.

Question 74

Terrorism has often been carried out by agents of the state.

Question 75

According to the text, the United States has never sponsored or provided support
for activities which could be defined as terrorist.

Question 76

The enormous wealth accumulated by the Marcos family in the Philippines can be
attributed in part to the high per capita income of its citizens.

Question 77

State negligence is not subject to criminal prosecution if no demonstrable fraud is
involved.

Question 78

The text alleges that state negligence alone is responsible for the high rate of
black infant mortality and deaths from AIDS in the United States.

Question 79

The United States has never tolerated or actively supported corrupt, repressive
right-wing dictatorships.

Question 80

The use of torture by states is one form of state crime that has been successfully addressed.