Deck 6: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime

Question 1

Which of the following statements does NOT represent the sociological perspective on deviance?

A)Behavior varies according to social context.
B)Definitions of deviance vary based on social context.
C)Crime depends on the social institutions of a society.
D)Crime results from lack of moral regulation within society.
E)Crime is a personal choice that is not shaped by social context.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Which of the following statements related to the biological view of deviance is true?

A)Some of the first attempts to explain crime emphasized biological factors.
B)Cesare Lombroso's claims have been supported by a large body of subsequent research.
C)Nearly all studies claiming a relationship between body type and delinquency have used samples that are representative of the general population.
D)A correlation between body type and delinquency shows that one's body type "causes" criminal behavior.
E)Fragile-looking skinny children almost never engage in delinquent behavior.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In Robert Merton's typology,drug dealers would be:

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

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following statements concerning hackers is true?

A)Hackers now have a largely positive public reputation.
B)Hackers see themselves as criminals.
C)Most activities that hackers engage in are criminal.
D)The hacker community largely agrees with how it is perceived by the public.
E)Kevin Mitnick has been described as the "world's most celebrated computer hacker."

Question 5

A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior is called a:

A)conditioned response
B)symbolic response
C)sanction
D)norm
E)deviation

Question 6

The term used to describe modes of action that do not conform to the norms or values held by most members of a group or society is:

A)anomie
B)alienation
C)conformity
D)social construction
E)deviance

Question 7

Which of the following disciplines does NOT place the source of deviant behavior within an individual?

A)neuroscience
B)genetics
C)biology
D)psychology
E)sociology

Question 8

Theorizing that terrorists have a certain personality profile is an example of which view of deviance?

A)biological view
B)psychological view
C)sociological view
D)evolutionary view
E)rational choice view

Question 9

Referring to the recent study mentioned in your textbook of New Zealand children that investigated whether a child's propensity for aggression was linked to biological factors present at birth,with which statement would those researchers most likely agree?

A)There is no such thing as genes; it is a social construction.
B)There is no such thing as a genetic predisposition.
C)There are genetic predispositions, but they have no impact on human behavior.
D)A baby with a genetic predisposition for alcoholism would not likely become a problem drinker if his or her social environment provided few opportunities to drink.
E)There is a genetic predisposition for alcoholism that will cause those with that predisposition to become alcoholics, regardless of environment.

Question 10

In Robert Merton's typology,the majority of people in society are:

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

Question 11

The term that describes rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of situations is:

A)value
B)belief
C)sanction
D)norm
E)institutionalization

Question 12

According to your textbook authors,which statement concerning deviance is NOT true?

A)All law breakers are deviants in all social contexts.
B)Some people choose to be deviant.
C)Some people are deviant because they are incapable of following the rules.
D)Most of us, on some occasions, violate generally accepted rules of behavior.
E)We are all rule creators.

Question 13

According to Robert Merton,at a time when society as a whole is becoming more affluent,why do crime rates continue to rise?

A)a sense of relative deprivation among those at the bottom
B)inadequate socialization of the poor
C)the rise of deviant subcultures
D)the ability of communities to afford more police officers
E)the presence of more material goods to steal

Question 14

What did the Heaven's Gate cult and the computer hacker community have in common?

A)Both are religious groups.
B)Both groups believed that the end of the world is near.
C)Both groups struggled financially.
D)Both groups restricted their membership to men.
E)Both groups are considered deviant subcultures.

Question 15

__________ are norms defined by governments as principles that their citizens must follow; a __________ is any type of behavior that violates these norms.

A)Laws; crime
B)Informal codes; breach
C)Taboos; sin
D)Guidelines; deviation
E)Negative reinforcements; positive reinforcement

Question 16

A concept brought into wide usage in sociology by Émile Durkheim,__________ refers to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior.

A)egoism
B)altruism
C)fatalism
D)anomie
E)postmodernism

Question 17

A subculture whose members hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority is called:

A)a social control group
B)a deviant subculture
C)a median subculture
D)a normative subculture
E)an aggregate

Question 18

A veteran police officer's criticism of a rookie police officer for not acting aggressively enough during an altercation with a suspect is an example of a:

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

Question 19

Which of the following statements would Émile Durkheim DISAGREE with?

A)People in the modern age are highly controlled by social expectations.
B)Deviance is necessary for society.
C)Deviance can contribute to the stability of society.
D)Deviance in an innovative force.
E)Deviance promotes boundary maintenance.

Question 20

Which of the following statements is NOT true about psychopaths?

A)Psychopaths are withdrawn, emotionless characters who delight in violence for its own sake.
B)Psychopaths lack the moral sense and concern for others held by most normal people.
C)Psychopaths are inevitably criminal.
D)People with psychopathic characteristics might be explorers, spies, or gamblers.
E)Nearly all studies of people said to possess psychopathic characteristics have been of convicted prisoners.

Question 21

Fifteen-year-old Diego is arrested and spends thirty days in juvenile detention.He begins to see himself as a delinquent while there.When he is released,he commits more crimes.The crimes that he commits after being released would be considered by Edwin Lemert as:

A)primary deviance
B)secondary deviance
C)tertiary deviance
D)anomic deviance
E)structural strain deviance

Question 22

Which of the following statements is NOT reflective of control theory?

A)You have a strong attachment to friends who value good grades and hard work, therefore you value good grades and hard work.
B)You are a high school dropout, so you have little to lose by being arrested.
C)School and work keep you constantly busy, so you have little time to spend engaged in deviant activities.
D)You believe in honesty and hard work.
E)You engage in deviance as a political act.

Question 23

Which theory proposes that we become deviant when exposed to a higher level of deviant persons and influences,compared to conventional influences?

A)anomie theory
B)strain theory
C)differential association theory
D)control theory
E)labeling theory

Question 24

Violent crime is more common:

A)in suburbs than in cities or small towns
B)in small towns than in cities or suburbs
C)today than in the early 1990s
D)in the United States than in Switzerland
E)in countries where handguns and other firearms are banned

Question 25

Which researcher found that boys in the lower working class who are frustrated with their positions in life often joined together in delinquent subcultures that rejected middle-class values and replaced them with norms that celebrate defiance?

A)Albert Cohen
B)Robert Merton
C)Émile Durkheim
D)Kingsley Davis
E)Talcott Parsons

Question 26

The National Crime Victimization Survey has found that crime rates are:

A)functional, serving many positive functions
B)social constructions
C)actually higher than those reported by official agencies
D)actually lower than those reported by official agencies
E)about the same as those reported by official agencies, confirming the accuracy of those reports

Question 27

A survey of homeless youth in Canada shows a strong correlation between hunger,lack of shelter,and unemployment,on the one hand,and theft,prostitution,and even violent crime on the other.Whose theory of delinquency would best explain this relationship?

A)Émile Durkheim
B)Richard A.Cloward and Lloyd E.Ohlin
C)Edwin H.Sutherland
D)Travis Hirschi
E)Howard Becker

Question 28

In 2009,what percent of people in jail were men?

A)12.2 percent
B)30.3 percent
C)45.4 percent
D)67.5 percent
E)87.8 percent

Question 29

Crime typically carried out by people in the more affluent sectors of society is called:

A)organized crime
B)white-collar crime
C)serial crime
D)index crime
E)negligent crime

Question 30

Which theory would Karl Marx agree with the most?

A)strain theory
B)differential association theory
C)control theory
D)conflict theory
E)labeling theory

Question 31

Two groups of boys,one working class and the other middle class,engage in equal amounts of delinquent activities.One group is considered "just boys being boys," and the other is considered "troublemakers." Which of the following theories best explains this difference?

A)strain theory
B)differential association theory
C)control theory
D)conflict theory
E)labeling theory

Question 32

Which theory views crime as the outcome of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and controls that deter it?

A)anomie theory
B)strain theory
C)differential association theory
D)control theory
E)labeling theory

Question 33

Which of the following statements concerning youth and crime is NOT true?

A)As young people gradually transition into adulthood, they acquire social attachments and commitments that make "conventional" behavior rewarding.
B)Most youthful deviants go on to become career criminals.
C)Trends in drug use have shifted away from hard drugs such as heroin and toward combinations of substances such as amphetamines, prescription drugs like OxyContin, alcohol, and the drug ecstasy.
D)Taking illegal drugs is often defined in racial, class, and cultural terms.
E)When crack cocaine appeared in the 1980s, it was quickly defined by the media as the drug of choice for black, inner-city kids who listened to hip-hop.

Question 34

Which factor was NOT mentioned in your textbook as contributing to the decline of crime rates in the 1990s?

A)aggressive law enforcement
B)a declining market for crack cocaine
C)the stigmatization of crack among young urban dwellers
D)the booming economy of the 1990s
E)changes in welfare laws

Question 35

Which of the following statements concerning the Uniform Crime Reports is NOT true?

A)The reports contain official data reported to law enforcement agencies.
B)The reports focus on "index crimes."
C)The reports accurately reflect crime rates.
D)The reports include only those crimes reported to law enforcement agencies.
E)The reports exclude fraud and embezzlement.

Question 36

From the perspective of the new criminology,laws:

A)are neutral
B)are applied evenly across the population
C)are used by the powerful to maintain their own privileged positions
D)protect the working class from being exploited by the capitalist elite
E)are social constructions that emerge through democratic processes

Question 37

Which of the following statements concerning victims and perpetrators of crime is true?

A)Men are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared to women.
B)Older persons are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared to young persons.
C)Whites are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared to African Americans.
D)Residents of the suburbs are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of crime compared to inner-city residents.
E)There are no gender, age, race, or residential area differences in rates of victimization or perpetration.

Question 38

At what age is a person most likely to be arrested for a crime?

A)10 or 11
B)13 or 14
C)18 or 19
D)25 or 26
E)35 or 36

Question 39

According to differential association theory,who 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 person with high aspirations but few opportunities
D)a person with low aspirations but many opportunities
E)a person who has been labeled a delinquent

Question 40

From the perspective of labeling theory,deviance is seen as:

A)a process of interaction between deviants and nondeviants
B)a set of characteristics of individuals or groups
C)freely chosen
D)a component of personality
E)an act that is universally wrong

Question 41

Which of the following factors would sociologists consider to be LEAST related to crime?

A)widespread poverty
B)the conditions of the inner cities
C)the structure of society
D)the deteriorating life circumstances of many young men
E)the rising prison population

Question 42

Which theory served as the basis for new policing strategies in the late 1980s and 1990s that aggressively focused on minor crimes such as traffic violations and drinking and using drugs in public?

A)control theory
B)broken windows theory
C)conflict theory
D)differential association theory
E)labeling theory

Question 43

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

A)deviants who are committing rather than preventing crime
B)corrections officers who are herding criminals to prison
C)knowledge workers who are mapping and predicting risk within the population
D)safety patrollers who are guarding the health and welfare of citizens
E)security guards who are a visible presence but ineffective

Question 44

Which of the following countries has the highest incarceration rate?

A)China
B)Japan
C)France
D)Mexico
E)United States

Question 45

Forms of activity that have some of the characteristics of orthodox business but are illegal are called:

A)white-collar crime
B)corporate crime
C)index crime
D)organized crime
E)bureaucratic crime

Question 46

Which of the following is an example of organized crime described by Manuel Castells?

A)Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme
B)heroin networks that stretch across Asia
C)prison gangs
D)inner-city youth gangs
E)trainers who provide athletes with steroids

Question 47

A renewed emphasis on crime prevention rather than law enforcement to reintegrate policing within the community is called:

A)organized policing
B)corporate policing
C)community policing
D)target hardening
E)shaming

Question 48

A way of punishing criminal and deviant behavior based on rituals of public disapproval rather than incarceration is called:

A)deviance control
B)differential control
C)target hardening
D)outing
E)shaming

Question 49

Which of the following is NOT a latent consequence of target hardening?

A)Because the wealthy are protected from crime, there is a declining interest in understanding the causes of crime.
B)Criminals target less affluent areas that cannot afford the protective measures to combat crime.
C)A "fortress mentality" develops among the wealthy to shield them from criminals.
D)The crime rates against the poor and the wealthy widen, with the burden of crime falling disproportionately on the poor.
E)Target hardening fixes the underlying causes of crime.

Question 50

Which theory best explains why a neighborhood that had only minor problems such as abandoned cars and graffiti began to see an increase in other more serious types of property crime?

A)control theory
B)broken windows theory
C)conflict theory
D)differential association theory
E)labeling theory

Question 51

In the example given in the textbook about a car accident in Ontario,Canada,to which group did the police officer have to send information concerning the accident?

A)the provincial motor registry
B)the automobile industry
C)the insurance companies
D)the public health system
E)all of the above

Question 52

Which of the following statements about prisons is true?

A)The cost to keep a prisoner in the federal prison system for one is year is very low, about $6,000 per year.
B)Spending time in prison makes it unlikely that the ex-felon will ever commit another crime.
C)Spending time in prison often makes the ex-felon a more hardened criminal.
D)The average convict serves most of his sentence.
E)Most African American men are either in prison or otherwise under the control of the penal system.

Question 53

Which of the following statements concerning white-collar crime is NOT true?

A)The amount of money involved in crimes against property (robberies, burglaries, larceny, forgeries, and car thefts) is forty times greater than the amount involved in white-collar crimes.
B)Authorities regard white-collar crime in a more tolerant light than crimes of the less privileged.
C)Rarely do people caught committing white-collar crime go to jail.
D)The manufacture or sale of dangerous products is a type of white-collar crime.
E)Illegal environmental pollution is a type of white-collar crime.

Question 54

An experiment by sociologist Devah Pager showed that __________ is least likely to be hired.

A)a white man with no criminal record
B)a white man with a criminal record
C)a black man with no criminal record
D)a black man with a criminal record
E)none of the above; there was no difference among the four groups

Question 55

Which of the following best illustrates community policing?

A)taking seriously even minor crimes such as public drunkenness
B)community organizations, government agencies, and businesses working together to help repair urban decay
C)the installation of burglar alarms
D)public shaming of offenders
E)enacting get-tough-on-crime laws

Question 56

Offenses committed by large corporations in society are called:

A)elite crime
B)bureaucratic crime
C)corporate crime
D)crime syndicate
E)index crime

Question 57

Putting locks on mailboxes is an example of:

A)deviance control
B)differential control
C)New Left realism
D)target hardening
E)shaming

Question 58

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

A)The majority of Americans have always supported capital punishment.
B)The majority of Americans have always opposed capital punishment.
C)Most adults supported capital punishment in 2010.
D)Most adults supported capital punishment in 1965.
E)Fewer Americans support capital punishment today than a generation ago.

Question 59

Which of the following is NOT an example of corporate crime?

A)A pesticide company dumps pollutants into the local river.
B)A food manufacturer puts false nutrition information on its product labels.
C)An automobile company manufactures and knowingly sells an SUV that rolls over easily.
D)Corporate executives lie about their company's profits.
E)An organized crime group engages in sex trafficking.

Question 60

The term that describes practical measures used to limit a criminal's ability to commit crime is:

A)deviance control
B)differential associating
C)broken windows fixing
D)target hardening
E)shaming

Question 61

How is it possible that a person can be both a conformist and a deviant? Explain using examples.

Question 62

What is the biological view of deviance? What are some of the weaknesses of this approach?

Question 63

Those who study the functions of deviance would probably NOT refer to which example as a function that deviance performs?

A)Deviants help us to understand what is considered "right" and "wrong."
B)We try very hard to avoid the sanctions that result from doing "wrong."
C)We try to avoid deviance so that we will not be treated as social outcasts.
D)Public punishments prevent us from behaving in a similar way.
E)Noncriminals learn from experienced criminals how to commit crime.

Question 64

How does crime affect the lives of people who have little contact with the criminal justice system as victim or offender? Explain using examples.

Question 65

Which of the following statements concerning the criminal justice system would your textbook authors most DISAGREE with?

A)The cost of the criminal justice system is increasing.
B)The number of people behind bars has increased in the past decade.
C)Few of us are affected by the high cost of crime.
D)To pay for the high cost of the criminal justice system, taxes may have to be raised.
E)To pay for the high cost of the criminal justice system, other important social services may have to be cut.

Question 66

Which of the following is affected by our desire not to be socially ostracized?

A)the clothes we wear
B)the hobbies we engage in
C)the romantic partners we choose
D)our future careers
E)all of the above

Question 67

Apply control theory to explain why people in their late teens are more likely to commit crime than older people.

Question 68

Compare and contrast differential association theory with control theory.Which theory do you think better explains crime? Explain.

Question 69

Why have efforts to significantly decrease the supply of illegal drugs in the United States failed?

Question 70

Between 1987 and 2007,the adjusted for inflation spending on corrections increased by:

A)10 percent
B)35 percent
C)65 percent
D)95 percent
E)127 percent

Question 71

Discuss the ways in which deviance is functional.Give examples.

Question 72

Compare the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)with victimization surveys such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).Which method gives a better indication of the level of crime in the United States?

Question 73

Compare and contrast labeling theory with the new criminology perspective.Which theory do you think better explains crime? Explain.

Question 74

How might shaming work to rehabilitate an offender?

A)It locks the offender in a permanent state of shame.
B)It lets the offender 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 processes the shame in the offender such that he or she will be much more fearful of committing another crime.
E)Shaming only works in collectivist societies such as Japan.

Question 75

How does Robert Merton explain crime? How would Merton explain the crimes committed in the inner city?