Deck 7: Deviance

Question 1

Walter Reckless and Simon Dinitz claimed that "good boys" have the ability to control deviant impulses. They called their approach

A) containment theory.
B) differential opportunity theory.
C) differential association theory.
D) personality theory.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following statements is consistent with the thinking of Emile Durkheim?

A) Police and courts are needed to stem the tide of deviance caused by selfish human nature.
B) Deviance affirms cultural values and norms.
C) Responding to deviance divides people in a community.
D) When people engage in deviance, this behavior erodes moral boundaries.

Answer 2

Deviance affirms cultural values and norms.

Question 3

Both Albert Cohen and Walter Miller argue that deviance is more likely to arise among

A) high-income males.
B) middle-income men and women.
C) low-income youths.
D) all class levels.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

"Crime" differs from "deviance" in that crime

A) involves a larger share of the population.
B) is a violation of norms enacted into law.
C) is always less serious.
D) is always more serious.

Question 5

The value of psychological theories of deviance is limited because

A) very few people experience an "unsuccessful socialization."
B) there has been very little research of this kind.
C) there is no way to distinguish "normal" from "abnormal" people in psychological terms.
D) most people who commit crimes have normal personalities.

Question 6

Assume you were listening to a lecture on Durkheim's approach to deviance. Which of the following statements might well be the focus of the lecture?

A) Deviance is a normal element of social organization.
B) Deviance is a dysfunctional element of social organization.
C) Deviance is less common in modern societies than in traditional societies.
D) Deviance is defined by the rich and used against the poor.

Question 7

Every society regulates the thoughts and behavior of individuals. This process of regulation is called

A) social control.
B) childhood socialization.
C) neighborhood watch.
D) the legal system.

Question 8

Which of the following sociological terms refers to the recognized violation of cultural norms?

A) crime
B) juvenile delinquency
C) unsuccessful socialization
D) deviance

Question 9

"Crime" differs from "deviance" in that crime

A) refers to a much wider range of behavior.
B) is a violation of norms enacted into law.
C) is always less harmful.
D) is always more harmful.

Question 10

The basic idea behind labeling theory is that

A) deviance arises not so much from what people
B) deviance is actually useful in a number of ways.
C) power has much to do with how a society do as how others respond to what they do. defines deviance.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 11

In legal terms, a crime is composed of which two components?

A) the act and the intent
B) a criminal and a victim
C) the act and the social harm
D) the law and the violation

Question 12

Based on your reading, it would be correct to say that biological approaches offer

A) a good explanation of only property crime.
B) a good explanation of only violent crime.
C) a good explanation of all crimes.
D) a very limited understanding of crime.

Question 13

Read the following statements about the social foundation of deviance. Which statement is NOT correct?

A) Norms and the way people define rule breaking involve differences in social power.
B) People become deviant as others define them that way.
C) Most acts that are deviant in one place are deviant everywhere.
D) Deviance exists only in relation to cultural norms.

Question 14

What does Chapter 7's opening story say about Bruce Glover's release from prison after serving twenty-six years?

A) Glover was wrongly convicted of a crime.
B) Glover immediately was arrested for a new crime.
C) Long cut off from the outside world, Glover had few resources with which to begin a new life.
D) Glover immediately became a celebrity and soon was making a high income.

Question 15

Criminal statistics gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation reflect

A) all crimes that take place.
B) offenses cleared by arrest.
C) offenses resulting in a criminal conviction.
D) offenses known to the police.

Question 16

Read the following four statements. Which comes closest to the correct view of the role of biology in causing people to commit crimes?

A) Genetics research has succeeded in explaining most criminality.
B) Biological factors may have a real but small effect in causing some people to commit crimes.
C) Lombroso proved a century ago that biological factors are a major cause of crime.
D) Males with one particular body type commit most serious crimes. (Applied;

Question 17

Which of the following concepts refers to the formal system that responds to alleged violations of the law using police, courts, and prison officials?

A) socialization
B) civil law
C) the criminal justice system
D) the normative system

Question 18

Which of the following illustrates the "medicalization of deviance"?

A) promiscuity being redefined as a "sexual
B) drinking too much being redefined as "alcoholism"
C) theft being redefined as a "compulsive addiction" disorder"
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 19

Research suggests that, with regard to social class, arrest for violent and property crime

A) is about the same for people of all class levels.
B) is higher for people in lower class levels.
C) is higher for people in higher class levels.
D) almost always involves middle-class people.

Question 20

In his study of New England Puritans, Kai Erikson concluded that

A) people everywhere define mostly the same things as deviant.
B) very religious people create very little deviance.
C) even this disciplined and highly religious group created deviance to clarify moral boundaries.
D) the proportion of people in the population that the Puritans defined as deviant kept rising over time.

Question 21

Thomas Szasz made the controversial assertion that

A) our society does far too little to treat mentally ill people.
B) mental illness is a myth; "insanity" amounts to differences that bother other people.
C) most people in the United States have been or will become insane for some period of time.
D) deviance is only what people label as deviant.

Question 22

Whether people respond to deviance as a moral or medical matter affects which of the following?

A) who responds--police or medical personnel
B) whether the person is subject to punishment or treatment
C) how personally competent the person is assumed to be.
D) All of the above are correct

Question 23

Edwin Sutherland's differential association theory links deviance to

A) the amount of contact a person has with others who encourage or discourage the behavior in question.
B) how officials define a person's behavior.
C) how others respond to the race, class, or gender of some individuals.
D) how able a person is to contain deviant impulses.

Question 24

Using the terms of Robert Merton's strain theory, which of the following terms would correctly describe a gangster like Al Capone who made a lot of money breaking the law?

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

Question 25

According to the social-conflict approach, what a society labels as deviant is based mostly on

A) the moral values of the culture.
B) patterns of inequality and which categories of people have more power.
C) how harmful the act is to the public as a whole.
D) how often certain acts occur.

Question 26

Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin extended Merton's theory of deviance by stating that crime

A) is typically a result of drug dependence or other substance addiction.
B) is defined in such a way as to overly criminalize the poor.
C) is more common among the rich who have more resources.
D) reflects not only limited legitimate opportunity but also accessible illegitimate opportunity.

Question 27

The basic idea behind labeling theory is that

A) deviance arises not so much from what people do as how others respond to what they do.
B) deviance is actually useful in a number of ways.
C) people rarely define even harmful wrongdoing as deviance.
D) power has much to do with how a society defines deviance.

Question 28

According to Robert Merton's strain theory, which of the following concepts correctly describes people, including alcoholics and drug addicts, who "drop out" of society?

A) ritualist
B) innovator
C) rebel
D) retreatist

Question 29

Travis Hirschi's control theory suggests which of the following categories of people would be most likely to engage in deviance?

A) young people who respect their parents and try to please them
B) youngsters who "hang out" on the corner waiting for something to happen
C) teenage athletes with after-school jobs
D) students enrolled in college

Question 30

The concept "retrospective labeling" refers to the process of

A) predicting that someone will become deviant at some point in the future.
B) delinquent children growing into criminal adults.
C) defining someone as deviant for things done long before.
D) interpreting someone's past as consistent with present deviance.

Question 31

Both Albert Cohen and Walter Miller argue that deviance is most likely to arise among

A) high-income males.
B) middle-class men and women.
C) low-income youths.
D) women at all class levels.

Question 32

The "Seeing Sociology in the News" article in Chapter 7 ("Deviance") claims that one factor that has pushed up the rate of crime, especially high-tech crime, is

A) parents who do not monitor their children after school.
B) the spread of soft drugs to the suburbs.
C) the recent economic recession.
D) layoffs by police departments reducing patrols.

Question 33

Edwin Lemert described "primary deviance" as

A) a passing episode of deviance that has little effect on the person's self-concept.
B) actions that parents or other family members define as seriously deviant.
C) the most serious episodes of deviance.
D) the experience of deviance early in life.

Question 34

Which of the following illustrates the "medicalization of deviance"?

A) a career criminal being required by prison officials to attend counseling
B) an older woman drinking more and more after losing a job
C) a girl's sexual activity being redefined by her psychologist as a "sexual addiction"
D) violence in the home by a man who abuses a prescription drug

Question 35

Participating in the subculture that Elijah Anderson describes as "the code of the street" raises the risk that young people will end up

A) conforming to conventional morality.
B) in jail or worse.
C) doing better than their parents.
D) having a career in law enforcement.

Question 36

Which of the following is Erving Goffman's concept that refers to a powerful and negative label that greatly changes a person's self-concept and social identity?

A) degradation ceremony
B) deviant ritual
C) stigma
D) secondary identity

Question 37

Using a Marxist approach, Steven Spitzer claims that a capitalist society is likely to label which of the following categories of people as deviant?

A) people who spend most of their time working hard to support their families
B) the rich in relation to the poor
C) people who get along with others and "play the game"
D) radicals who call for basic change in capitalistic society itself

Question 38

Alexander Liazos speaks for the social-conflict approach when he states that

A) powerless people are at the highest risk of being defined as deviant.
B) deviance has both functions and dysfunctions.
C) deviance exists only in the eye of the beholder.
D) society should ignore victimless crime.

Question 39

When friends began to criticize Juan as a "boozer," pushing him out of their social circle, he became bitter and began to drink even more. Juan ended up joining a new group of friends, all of whom are all heavy drinkers. According to Edwin Lemert, this situation illustrates

A) the onset of primary deviance.
B) the onset of secondary deviance.
C) the formation of a deviant subculture.
D) the process of retreatism.

Question 40

According to Robert Merton's strain theory, which of the following concepts correctly describes the behavior of a radical who rejects cultural goals and means in favor of some alternative system?

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

Question 41

Victimization surveys show that the actual amount of crime in the United States is about_____________ what official reports indicate.

A) ten times greater than
B) twice as high as
C) the same as
D) half of

Question 42

The recent Wall Street scandals, such as Bernard Madoff's swindling thousands of people out of billions of dollars, are examples of

A) organized crime.
B) corporate crime.
C) primary deviance.
D) secondary deviance.

Question 43

Organized crime refers to

A) illegal actions by people with white-collar jobs.
B) illegal actions on the part of a corporation or large business.
C) crime involving cooperation between two or more large businesses.
D) any business that supplies illegal goods or services.

Question 44

Of all the serious crimes discussed in Chapter 7,______ occurs far more frequently than all the others.

A) motor-vehicle theft
B) larceny-theft
C) robbery
D) forcible rape

Question 45

A hate crime is defined as

A) any violation of federal, state, or local anti-discrimination laws.
B) a criminal act motivated by racial or other bias.
C) any crime involving powerful emotions.
D) any crime targeting a member of a minority.

Question 46

Which of the following terms refers to the illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf?

A) hate crime
B) capitalist crime
C) corporate crime
D) organized crime

Question 47

Prostitution is widely regarded as one example of

A) victimless crime.
B) corporate crime.
C) crime against the person.
D) crime against property.

Question 48

The category "crimes against property" includes all but one of the following. Which one is NOT included?

A) larceny-theft
B) arson
C) burglary
D) robbery

Question 49

Gender figures into the study of deviance because

A) most researchers in this area are women.
B) most of the people arrested for serious crimes in the United States are women.
C) every society in the world applies stronger normative controls to females than to males.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 50

In legal terms, a crime is composed of which two elements?

A) a criminal and a victim
B) the act and criminal intent
C) the offender and the public
D) the act and the social harm

Question 51

Mike reports that his dirt bike was stolen from the front yard of his house. The police would record this as which of the following types of crime?

A) burglary
B) robbery
C) larceny-theft
D) auto-theft

Question 52

Edwin Sutherland stated that white-collar crime

A) is more likely to be resolved in a civil rather than a criminal court.
B) rarely involves serious harm to the public as a whole.
C) almost always leads to a criminal conviction.
D) provokes a strong response from the community.

Question 53

In terms of race and ethnicity, most people arrested for violent crime in the United States are

A) Latino.
B) African American.
C) people of mixed race.
D) white.

Question 54

In the United States, men account for about_______ of all arrests for violent crime.

A) 82 percent
B) 62 percent
C) 42 percent
D) 22 percent

Question 55

Research suggests that, with regard to social class, arrest for serious crime

A) is about the same for people of all class levels.
B) is higher for people in higher class levels.
C) is higher for people in lower class levels.
D) almost always involves middle-class people.

Question 56

The likelihood a person will be arrested for a street crime rises sharply

A) during the forties.
B) during the middle thirties.
C) in the late twenties.
D) during the late teenage years.

Question 57

Criminal statistics gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation reflect

A) only offenses cleared by arrest.
B) all crimes that take place.
C) only offenses known to the police.
D) only offenses resulting in a criminal conviction.

Question 58

Which of the following concepts refers to crime committed by persons of high social position in the course of doing their jobs?

A) street crime
B) organized crime
C) white-collar crime
D) victimless crime

Question 59

Men, who represent about half the U.S. population, account for about_______ of all arrests for property crime.

A) 85 percent
B) 65 percent
C) 45 percent
D) 25 percent

Question 60

_________is a legal term meaning "guilty mind" and refers to criminal intent.

A) Mens rea
B) Mea culpa
C) Homo sapiens
D) Habeas corpus

Question 61

The concept "criminal recidivism" refers to

A) the idea that crime "really does pay."
B) subsequent offenses by people previously convicted of crimes.
C) efforts by police to enlist help from a local community.
D) young people growing up in a "criminal" environment.

Question 62

In historical perspective, the oldest justification for punishing an offender is

A) rehabilitation.
B) social protection.
C) retribution.
D) deterrence.

Question 63

Biological factors, including genetics, offer a limited explanation of crime.

Question 64

What is considered deviant is mostly the same behavior all around the world.

Question 65

Caesare Lombroso, an Italian physician and early criminologist, claimed that most criminals were people who had been mistreated by society.

Question 66

If a parent threatens a child with punishment in order to discourage wrongdoing, the parent is using punishment to accomplish which of the following?

A) deterrence
B) retribution
C) social protection
D) rehabilitation

Question 67

The concept of due process refers to

A) the criminal justice system operating within the bounds of the law.
B) the idea that people get what they deserve.
C) the process of plea bargaining.
D) the obligation of all citizens to report crime.

Question 68

A judge orders that an offender be sentenced to prison for a short time, with most of the sentence served on probation. The sentence reflects a policy called

A) parole.
B) rehabilitation.
C) shock probation.
D) extended lockup.

Question 69

Because there are several hundred people in the United States for every police officer, police

A) cannot take time to ensure due process for suspects.
B) use personal judgment in deciding which situations warrant their attention.
C) ignore most crimes they learn about.
D) work, on average, far more hours than other workers.

Question 70

The only Western, high-income nation that routinely executes offenders convicted of serious crimes is

A) the United Kingdom.
B) Canada.
C) the United States.
D) France.

Question 71

Robert Merton claimed that the "strains of masculinity" are one important cause of crime.

Question 72

Surveys show that about_______ of U.S. adults support the death penalty as a punishment for murder.

A) 12 percent
B) 22 percent
C) 42 percent
D) 62 percent

Question 73

The death penalty

A) is legal in most states, but is actually carried out only in a few states.
B) was ruled unconstitutional in the United States in 2005.
C) is legal in all of the fifty states.
D) is being carried out more frequently as time goes on.

Question 74

Emile Durkheim's analysis suggests it would be impossible for a society to completely eliminate deviance.

Question 75

Walter Reckless and Simon Dinitz developed "containment theory," which claims that a strong conscience (or superego) helps boys stay out of trouble.

Question 76

Which of the following are advantages of community-based corrections?

A) reducing prison overcrowding
B) reducing costs of dealing with offenders
C) avoiding the hardships of prison life, including the stigma attached to being incarcerated
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 77

Most criminal cases brought to court in the United States are resolved

A) through a pre-sentence investigation.
B) with a trial judge deciding the case.
C) with a jury trial.
D) through plea bargaining.

Question 78

A judge sentences a young man who has committed several crimes to counseling and places him in a supportive foster home. Which of the following concepts describes these efforts to prevent further wrongdoing?

A) retribution
B) deterrence
C) social protection
D) rehabilitation

Question 79

Crime is only one type of deviance.

Question 80

According to Elliot Currie, factors that explain why the United States has a high crime rate by world standards include

A) having too few police officers.
B) an emphasis on individualism and economic success, which weakens families and neighborhoods.
C) our cultural homogeneity.
D) a lack of public interest in punishing offenders.