Deck 7: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime

Question 1

Nonconformity to a set of norms accepted by a significant number of people in a community is called:

A) target hardening
B) differential association
C) anomie
D) deviance

Answer 1

D

Question 2

In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement drew large numbers of people to New York City to protest rising income inequality. To make their point, these protestors marched on the city streets, built tent cities where they lived and slept while the demonstrations were ongoing, and actively worked to disrupt the flow of life. In Robert K. Merton's view, these people would be what kind of deviants?

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

Answer 2

D

Question 3

According to differential association theory, which kind of person 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 poor person with high aspirations but few opportunities
D) a middle-class person with low aspirations but many opportunities

Answer 3

B

Question 4

When a professor is delivering a lecture and some students begin to whisper back and forth, the professor may stop the lecture, remain silent, and stare at the students. What is the professor's behavior an example of?

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

Question 5

What is a common criticism of the functionalist theories of crime and deviance?

A) There is little to be gained in connecting the macrosociological to the microsociological.
B) They are outdated because their premises no longer apply in the information age.
C) Functionalists tend to presume that everyone has middle-class values.
D) American society no longer experiences internal contradictions.

Question 6

Your friend has requested you as a bridesmaid at her wedding and asks that you wear a full-length dress, something that is physically uncomfortable for you. When you tell her you plan to wear a knee-length version, she is mortified and says that she expects you to agree to her request. To get you to comply, she may use:

A) differential association
B) anomie
C) community policing
D) a sanction

Question 7

A very straitlaced friend of yours has told you that she never ever breaks any rules such as speed limits, is never late, or anything similar. She is apparently "little miss perfect." Why would a sociologist suggest that her claim cannot be true?

A) We are all members of deviant subcultures.
B) No one conforms to all the rules.
C) We are all conformists.
D) We all create rules.

Question 8

What are we referring to when we speak of the formal norms defined by governments as principles that their citizens must follow?

A) crimes
B) informal sanctions
C) laws
D) sanctions

Question 9

What are we referring to when we talk about principles or rules that people in a society are expected to observe?

A) sanctions
B) norms
C) deviance
D) anomie

Question 10

One of the main puzzles in the study of criminology is that although society became much more affluent in the twentieth century, crime rates continued to rise. Robert K. Merton responded to this quandary by:

A) determining that economic factors were no longer relevant to crime
B) emphasizing the morality socialized into particular groups
C) identifying a sense of relative deprivation as a factor in deviance
D) recognizing that people with deviant peers are more likely to participate in deviant behavior

Question 11

What word might Robert K. Merton use to characterize white-collar criminals?

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

Question 12

Jill's cell phone rang during an exam, and other students in the class turned around and stared at her. The instructor took the opportunity to remind the class that all cell phones should be turned off and put away. Both the class and the instructor used the moment to perform:

A) boundary maintenance
B) a formal sanction
C) an adaptive function
D) a positive sanction

Question 13

Sociologists would classify a drug-dealing gang whose members hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority as a:

A) Jim Crow gang
B) deviant subculture
C) primary deviation
D) relative deprivation

Question 14

According to Edwin Sutherland, why do criminals adopt criminal behavior?

A) They are genetically predisposed to criminal activity.
B) They learn criminal behavior from peers.
C) They respond to rewards and punishments.
D) They transfer their emotional issues to criminal behavior.

Question 15

Looking at Figure 7.2, Merton's Deviance Typology, in which type would we see higher levels of anomie? Merton's Deviance Typology
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A) innovation
B) rebellion
C) retreatism
D) ritualism

Question 16

According to Robert K. Merton, what are the majority of people in society?

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

Question 17

Albert Cohen used the concept of "delinquent subculture" to refer to groups such as gangs that reject middle-class norms and celebrate defiance. What is the primary difference between his of deviance and that of Robert K. Merton?

A) Deviance is found in inner-city subcultures.
B) Deviance is a collective response.
C) Deviance is inevitably the result of socioeconomic differences.
D) Deviance is frequently visible along racial lines.

Question 18

What type of sanction is applied only by people officially designated to enforce norms?

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

Question 19

When peer groups make fun of someone's clothes, what type of sanction is this an example of?

A) reintegrative
B) formal
C) informal
D) positive

Question 20

The two theories explaining deviance that are classified as interactionist are:

A) differential association and labeling theory
B) labeling theory and delinquent subcultures
C) labeling theory and control theory
D) strain theory and differential association

Question 21

Which of the following most accurately describes the number of people in U.S. prisons?

A) Because of the excellent job the prisons are doing in rehabilitating inmates, the number of people incarcerated in the United States continues to decline.
B) Because many activities have been decriminalized, the number of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons is at an all-time low.
C) The United States has more people in prison than other countries, but it has a larger population than other countries.
D) The United States has the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world.

Question 22

In the movie "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," one of the patients in the mental hospital tells the other inmates that they are not crazy and they should not act as though they are just because the head nurse tells them they are. Which of the following theories best explains the patients' behaviors?

A) control
B) differential association
C) labeling
D) anomie

Question 23

Which of the following explanations for not cheating on this exam is supported by control theory?

A) None of your friends cheat, so you never really learned how to cheat.
B) You always receive an A on exams, so you have no reason to cheat.
C) You sit in the front of the class and are afraid of getting caught.
D) Your parents hired a tutor to help you get ready for the exam, so you don't need to cheat.

Question 24

Recent criminological research has found that adolescents in romantic relationships are less likely to commit crime than other adolescents, "perhaps because romantic love discourages offending by strengthening the social bond." This finding best supports which of the following theories of crime?

A) labeling
B) subcultural
C) conflict
D) control

Question 25

Which of the following statements best illustrates Howard S. Becker's labeling theory of deviance?

A) Adolescents in romantic relationships are less likely to commit crime than other adolescents.
B) The definition of crime is class biased; for example, the crimes listed in the Uniform Crime Reports are disproportionately committed by members of the lower class in the United States.
C) Frustration arising from lack of access to legitimate means to success in achieving culturally prescribed goals lies at the root of crime and deviance.
D) Ex-offenders are much less likely to be called back by employers than men with similar resumes but no criminal record.

Question 26

Which country has the highest incarceration rate in the world?

A) China
B) Cuba
C) Russia
D) United States

Question 27

In a study conducted by Devah Pager and her colleagues looking at preferences of Milwaukee employers seeking entry-level workers, they found which two groups to be similarly preferred?

A) whites with a felony conviction, blacks with a felony conviction
B) blacks with no criminal history, whites with no criminal history
C) whites with a felony conviction, blacks with no criminal history
D) blacks with a felony conviction, whites with no criminal history

Question 28

A common criticism of labeling theory is that labeling theorists:

A) argue incorrectly that people are constantly being labeled
B) do not account for social differences
C) insist on explaining all of deviance as labeling
D) neglect the processes that lead to acts being defined as deviant

Question 29

According to Francis Ianni, which of the following statements concerning the black Mafia is true?

A) Black Mafia members moved out of crime and into the American mainstream.
B) The black Mafia became overly dependent on the drug trade and was unable to diversify its criminal activities.
C) The black Mafia developed strong relations with white politicians.
D) The black Mafia followed the trajectory of the Italian Mafia.

Question 30

With which of the following statements might a conflict theorist most closely agree?

A) Deviants are born into a culture that rewards criminal behavior.
B) Deviant behavior could be a response to inequalities in capitalist society.
C) Deviant behavior results from deviants associating with other deviants.
D) Deviant behavior can arise from various types of negative relationships that individuals have.

Question 31

Which theory explains why focusing on minor crimes like traffic violations, drinking, or using illegal drugs in public underpinned proactive policing in the late 1980s and early 1990s?

A) broken windows
B) conflict
C) control
D) subcultural

Question 32

The term prison-industrial complex has been used by critics to describe the current American prison system. What does this fact refer to?

A) High rates of incarceration of persons of a lower class have led to a decrease in the industrial labor force.
B) Prisons increasingly employ inmates in factory work (for example, constructing furniture or imprinting license plates).
C) Large numbers of people have vested economic and political interests in the expansion of the prison system.
D) Jails and prisons have instituted costly job training programs for inmates to enter industrial jobs on release.

Question 33

At present, the United States has a higher incarceration rate per capita than any other country. What is one of the biggest challenges of this approach?

A) The federal government cannot keep up with the demands of training correctional officers.
B) The privatization of the prison industry is driving up costs.
C) The annual cost of housing a prisoner is so high.
D) The annual cost of training a correctional officer is so high.

Question 34

What type of theorist might argue that even the definition of crime is class biased, for example, that the crimes listed in the Uniform Crime Reports are crimes disproportionately committed by members of the lower class in the United States?

A) labeling
B) functionalist
C) conflict
D) control

Question 35

Putting locks on mailboxes is an example of:

A) differential association
B) community policing
C) a deviant act
D) target hardening

Question 36

Labeling theorists interpret deviance as a(n):

A) genetically determined component of personality
B) intrinsic characteristic of some actions
C) primarily macrosociological phenomenon
D) process of interaction between deviants and nondeviants

Question 37

Paul lives in a high-crime area. Many of the people he sees in the course of a day and knows are involved in criminal activities, thus increasing his opportunity to learn criminal behavior. Which of the following concepts best explains why Paul might engage in crime?

A) relative deprivation
B) secondary deviation
C) labeling
D) differential association

Question 38

Alisa's neighborhood is usually quiet, but the local newspaper reported an increase in criminal activity there. One morning, Alisa found her garage vandalized and covered in paint and eggs. She did not have time to clean up the mess right away. Later that week, Alisa's neighbor found his car windshield shattered. What type of theorist would be the most likely to agree with the idea that a vandalized garage could lead to more crime?

A) broken windows
B) conflict
C) differential association
D) subcultural

Question 39

African Americans make up around what percent of the current prison population?

A) 13
B) 21
C) 35
D) 55

Question 40

Émile Durkheim argues that deviance is necessary for a society, as it has an adaptive function. In suggesting this, Durkheim felt that society should respond to deviance in what way?

A) Allow deviance to flourish, and it will burn itself out.
B) Eliminate all deviance through social cohesion.
C) Keep deviance within acceptable boundaries.
D) Eliminate anomie through the imposition of clear standards of behavior.

Question 41

Sometimes a female lawbreaker is able to avoid punishment by invoking the gender contract. This concept allows the female lawbreaker to play on the idea that women in general are both erratic and:

A) in need of child support
B) have dependent children they are obligated to care for
C) in need of protection
D) less likely to be repeat offenders because they are women

Question 42

Distribution of white-collar crime is very difficult to measure in contrast to other types of crime primarily because:

A) these crimes rarely appear in any statistical reports
B) white-collar criminals are better educated and able to hide their crime activity
C) police and politicians are unable to prosecute white-collar criminals due to their intimate connections to money and power
D) white-collar crimes are always done by individuals, making their detection as a group extremely difficult

Question 43

Official crime statistics published by the government are based on information obtained from:

A) arrest records
B) eyewitness accounts
C) newspaper articles
D) police reports

Question 44

Beginning in the 1990s, crime rates began to decline nationwide. In 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that crime rates had reached a 40-year low. What factor may account for this trend?

A) worsening economic conditions
B) increasing use of sophisticated home security systems
C) increasing use of cocaine and other illegal drugs
D) increasing levels of lead in Americans' blood

Question 45

Sometime in 2010, computer experts discovered the existence of a computer virus later named Stuxnet. It was never discovered how the virus was developed or where it originated. The purpose of this malicious software was to attack certain types of machinery used by Iran to enrich nuclear material. What is this an example of?

A) innovation
B) cybercrime
C) broken windows
D) relative deprivation

Question 46

Victor Rios's work in Oakland on policing techniques shows the extent to which those populations are strained by the continuous presence of police. What is one significant problem that arises from this approach?

A) Not all offenders are actually arrested, leaving many out on the streets.
B) Families of these young men are forced to pay exorbitant bail bond amounts to get their child out of jail.
C) The young men learn how to fool teachers and potential employers, even if they had been arrested.
D) Even nonoffenders are left with a negative perception of themselves.

Question 47

Criminologists have suggested that among the reasons for the decline in reported crime rates in the 1990s are the improved economic conditions and lower unemployment. How might a sociologist explain this in regard to the idea of anomie?

A) As unemployment declines, there are fewer people "on the streets" with nothing to do.
B) The improvement in the economy leads potential criminals to seek a regular job.
C) As more people find jobs, there is a corresponding decline in the numbers of people who feel disoriented.
D) The decline in unemployment helps portray work as a better path to a good life.

Question 48

Which crime has the highest reporting rate in the United States?

A) auto theft
B) burglary
C) robbery
D) rape

Question 49

Harvey Molotch argues that the increases in security following the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 have actually made it easier for criminals to commit crimes, and he instead argues that we must appeal to what human characteristic to maintain our security effectively?

A) our sense of decency
B) our individualism
C) our faith in technology
D) our fear of outsiders

Question 50

Who are the most common victims of murder and other violent crimes in the United States?

A) young Hispanic urban males
B) young African American urban males
C) young white urban males
D) older African American urban males

Question 51

The National Crime Victimization Survey has found that compared to rates reported by official agencies, actual crime rates are:

A) higher for both property and violent crime
B) higher for violent crime but lower for property crime
C) lower for both property and violent crime
D) lower for violent crime but higher for property crime

Question 52

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

A) Americans support capital punishment because it is distributed equally among all criminals-men and women, whites and blacks, and so on.
B) Most Americans oppose capital punishment.
C) The percentage of Americans supporting the death penalty today is nearly double what it was 40 years ago.
D) Fewer Americans support capital punishment today than 20 years ago.

Question 53

Which of the following research findings supports the chivalry thesis?

A) For a given criminal offense, women receive harsher sentences than men.
B) Older women offenders are treated more aggressively than male offenders of the same age.
C) Police are less likely to arrest women than men for similar activities.
D) Women are more likely to commit small-scale property crimes than violent crimes.

Question 54

Traditionally, police work involved controlling crime. Increasingly, however, police officers are:

A) corrections officers, herding criminals to prison
B) knowledge workers, mapping and predicting risk within the population
C) safety patrollers, guarding the health and welfare of citizens
D) traffic directors because of increased volume of cars on the roads during rush hour

Question 55

Why would an administrative assistant in a large, multinational corporation who decided to falsify financial data for personal gain not be seen as an example of corporate crime?

A) Administrative assistants do not report directly to the CEO of a large corporation and are thus exempt from such prosecutions.
B) An administrative assistant doing so for personal gain is not acting on behalf of the corporation.
C) Only when a CEO falsifies reports for personal gain is it classified as corporate crime.
D) Corporate executives do not oversee the actions of individuals in a corporation, which makes such crimes property crimes and not corporate crimes.

Question 56

Police forces have grown steadily in the past 30 years in response to public demands for more protection. How has this affected the rate of violent crime in the United States?

A) Initially, violent crime decreased, but since the mid-1990s, violent crime has increased.
B) No causal relationship between the number of police and violent crime rates has been identified.
C) A clear causal relationship between the number of police and violent crime rates has been identified.
D) Violent crime has remained stable over time.

Question 57

Recent media analysis of police departments across the United States found a huge backlog of "rape kits" in evidence rooms. There are many reasons for this, including the cost of testing and the difficulty in linking forensic evidence to the crime. One other aspect to this problem might be that:

A) rape is often seen as a sexual offense and not a violent crime
B) most male police officers are not inclined to believe a woman's account of a rape
C) police departments do not wish to spend the resources on the investigation and interrogation process
D) police officers are extremely good at male intimidation and thus able to keep rape investigations out of the investigative process

Question 58

Most rapes in the United States are:

A) committed by strangers
B) victimless crimes
C) easily prosecuted
D) not reported to the police

Question 59

Since the early 1990s, what has been the trend in reported crime rates in the United States?

A) Both violent and property crime rates have decreased.
B) Both violent and property crime decreased until the 2007 recession; both have increased since then.
C) Property crime has increased, but violent crime has decreased.
D) Violent crime has increased, but property crime has decreased.

Question 60

According to David Garland, what is one factor that accounts for why the death penalty exists in the United States?

A) States have relative autonomy from the national state.
B) Local governments have little control over methods of punishment.
C) The Supreme Court has no authority to ban the death penalty.
D) Few support the death penalty, but Congress will not follow the will of the people.

Question 61

The process of bringing community and family members into court to publicly state their condemnation of a criminal's behavior and to accept the responsibility for reintegrating the offender back into the community is called:

A) community policing
B) stigmatizing shaming
C) labeling
D) reintegrative shaming

Question 62

Victor Rios's work in the city of Oakland led him to conclude what about the relationship between the police and the student body? What strategies could you suggest to alleviate this problem? Answer in one paragraph.

Question 63

MATCHING
a. Reject both the existing values and the means of achieving them but work to substitute new ones and reconstruct the social system
b. Abandoned the competitive outlook, rejecting both the dominant values and the approved means of achieving them
c. Conform to socially accepted standards, though they have lost sight of their underlying values
d. When there are no clear standards to guide behavior in a given area of social life
e. Accept generally held values and the means to achieve them
f. Accept socially approved values but use illegitimate or illegal means to follow them
Ritualists

Question 64

Labeling theory begins with a basic assumption that claims what? Give an example that makes this assumption clear. Answer in two to three sentences.

Question 65

How might reintegrative shaming work to rehabilitate an offender in the United States?

A) It locks the offender in a permanent state of shame.
B) It lets the defender 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 stigmatizes the offenders such that they will be much more fearful of committing another crime.

Question 66

MATCHING
a. Reject both the existing values and the means of achieving them but work to substitute new ones and reconstruct the social system
b. Abandoned the competitive outlook, rejecting both the dominant values and the approved means of achieving them
c. Conform to socially accepted standards, though they have lost sight of their underlying values
d. When there are no clear standards to guide behavior in a given area of social life
e. Accept generally held values and the means to achieve them
f. Accept socially approved values but use illegitimate or illegal means to follow them
Conformist

Question 67

Jane Jacobs found that the public peace of cities is kept primarily by the police.

Question 68

Compare crimes against property (robberies, burglaries, larceny, forgeries, and car thefts) with white-collar crimes. Discuss specifically the measurement of crime, attitude of authorities, amount of money involved, and number of people affected. Which do you think is more harmful? Answer in one paragraph.

Question 69

The context in which behavior occurs often makes the difference in whether it is considered deviant.

Question 70

In 2015, a majority of Americans opposed capital punishment.

Question 71

How is it possible for a person to be both a conformist and a deviant? Explain, using examples. Your answer should be one paragraph in length.

Question 72

According to Richard A. Cloward and Lloyd E. Ohlin, delinquent youth subcultures emerge where the chances of legitimately achieving success are low.

Question 73

What are the four different types of sanctions? Give an example of each. Answer in four to five sentences.

Question 74

MATCHING
a. Reject both the existing values and the means of achieving them but work to substitute new ones and reconstruct the social system
b. Abandoned the competitive outlook, rejecting both the dominant values and the approved means of achieving them
c. Conform to socially accepted standards, though they have lost sight of their underlying values
d. When there are no clear standards to guide behavior in a given area of social life
e. Accept generally held values and the means to achieve them
f. Accept socially approved values but use illegitimate or illegal means to follow them
Innovators

Question 75

MATCHING
a. Reject both the existing values and the means of achieving them but work to substitute new ones and reconstruct the social system
b. Abandoned the competitive outlook, rejecting both the dominant values and the approved means of achieving them
c. Conform to socially accepted standards, though they have lost sight of their underlying values
d. When there are no clear standards to guide behavior in a given area of social life
e. Accept generally held values and the means to achieve them
f. Accept socially approved values but use illegitimate or illegal means to follow them
Retreatists

Question 76

Why does Susan Browmiller think that all women are victims of rape? Do you agree with her? Answer in two to three sentences.

Question 77

Identifying yourself as a criminal is called primary deviation.

Question 78

Compare the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) with the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Which is a better measure of crime? Answer in one paragraph.

Question 79

Why is cybercrime so difficult to prosecute? What strategies could you suggest to more easily prosecute cybercriminals? Answer in one paragraph.

Question 80

According to your textbook authors, if everyone is a rule follower, does this lead to a more equitable society?

A) Yes; complying with the rules almost always eliminates power inequalities.
B) Yes; breaking rules and engaging in politically subversive acts almost never advances democracy.
C) Not always; strict adherence to the rules sometimes limits opportunities for upward mobility.
D) No; the black Mafia provides the best chance for upward mobility.