Deck 15: Contemporary Classicism

Question 1

Rational choice theory is based on the idea that individuals will commit offences if the 'expected utility' of doing so is positive, and will not do so if it is negative.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

What is 'defensible space'?

Answer 2

Newman argued that a sense of 'ownership' of spaces was important to their security - and that public spaces needed to be both observable and used in order for social control to flourish.

Question 3

In what year was the Home Office's 'Crime Prevention Unit set up and what was its target?

Answer 3

The recent history of the development of situational prevention theory begins with a body of work undertaken by the Home Office in the 1970s, which illustrated how opportunities for offending could be manipulated in ways which would prevent or reduce crime. It quickly grew in popularity in part, as suggested in the introduction of this chapter, because of growing disenchantment with alternative, more sociological perspectives that focused on social structural conditions leading to crime. By 1983 the Home Office had set up a 'Crime Prevention Unit' and was conducting an increasing amount of research in this area. Such work had also been influenced by two cognate developments in America: Oscar Newman's idea of 'defensible space' and Herman Goldstein's work on 'problem-oriented policing'.

Question 4

What did Felson describe as the 'chemistry for crime'?

Question 5

According to Cornish and Clarke (2006) what are two of the main classes of life events that are said to affect desistance from offending?

A)lack of friends
B)marriage and family
C)long prison sentences
D)legitimate job opportunities

Question 6

Which theories does situational crime prevention draw upon primarily?

A)positivism
B)rational choice
C)labelling theory
D)routine activity theories

Question 7

What is meant by 'bounded rationality'?

A)offenders are sometimes forced to commit crimes
B)offenders think before they act
C)offenders are irrational
D)offenders' decisions are based on some immediate benefits

Question 8

According to rational choice theorists crime is 'purposive'; it is never 'senseless' there is always some anticipated or intended benefit to the offender, including:

A)excitement
B)prestige
C)fun
D)sexual gratification
E)material reward

Question 9

From the 1970s onwards criminologists from various perspectives found two approaches to crime control increasingly popular:

A)deterring offenders prior to the act rather than rehabilitating them afterward
B)much longer sentences for burglars
C)'three strikes and you're out'
D)manipulating environments rather than humans

Question 10

Situational approaches focus on:

A)the opportunities for crime and the risks involved
B)situations where domestic violence might occur
C)the lack of police on street patrol
D)persistent offenders

Question 11

As faith in rehabilitation receded from the 1960s onward greater emphasis began to be placed on:

A)arming the police
B)the Probation Service
C)judges' decision making
D)deterrence and on 'justice' approaches

Question 12

Rather than focussing on the offender and the state's response, since the 1970s some different approaches have enjoyed growing popularity.

A)concentration on prison population literacy
B)focus on 'criminal events' and the circumstances in which those events occur
C)the role of women in criminal justice
D)police corruption

Question 13

Contemporary classicism emerged from:

A)the late 1960s onwards
B)the early nineteenth century
C)the 1500s
D)the early 1990s

Question 14

'Classical' criminology's assumption is:

A)that people are basically selfish
B)that society should monitor people
C)that offenders are essentially rationally-calculating actors
D)that people can be trained to be criminal

Question 15

Felson's acronym VIVA was concerned with the theft of motor vehicles.

Question 16

Routine activity theory, like other control-style theories, starts from the assumption that a key question is 'Why do people not commit crime?'

Question 17

Routine activity theory states that offenders learn routines in prison that are criminogenic.

Question 18

'Crime scripts' are the basis for television police documentaries.