Deck 14: Privileged Deviance

Question 1

The umbrella term used to describe deviance committed by the relatively rich and powerful is called ______.

A)organized crime
B)white-collar crime
C)privileged deviance
D)normal deviance

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Most of the tax evasion methods employed by corporations are

A)legal.
B)detected and prosecuted.
C)the consequence of government harassment.
D)not economically significant.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

According to David Ermann and Richard Lundman,the most obvious and important reason for corporations' tendency to be criminally negligent about their employees' health and safety is

A)profit maximization.
B)the nature of corporate structure.
C)the federal government's lack of earnest efforts to deter the deviances.
D)the skillfulness of corporate criminals.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The two types of white-collar deviance are white-collar occupational deviance and

A)street-based deviance.
B)government deviance.
C)corporate deviance.
D)individual deviance.

Question 5

According to the FBI,employee theft is

A)the fastest growing crime in the United States.
B)conducted by organized rings of employees connected to organized crime.
C)actually encouraged by owners of businesses.
D)a minor problem compared to robbery and mugging.

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT a reason why some employees steal from their employers?

A)feeling underpaid
B)being old enough to earn extra compensation
C)feeling frustrated by a lack of promotional opportunity
D)not perceiving the stealing as real theft

Question 7

Joe is the president of a large but struggling corporation.In order to ensure profits,he secretly contacts several of his competitors and gets them all to agree to charge the same prices for their products.This practice is an example of

A)a fraud.
B)an antitrust violation.
C)phony assets
D)deceptive but not illegal practice.

Question 8

According to the text,what distinguishes the commission of white-collar deviance from the commission of blue-collar deviance is

A)how the act is executed.
B)the color of the deviant's collar.
C)the relative seriousness of the act.
D)its relationship to street crimes.

Question 9

Which is NOT one of the types of fraudulent practices that led to the savings and loan failures in the 1980s?

A)the manipulation of stocks by corporate investors
B)illegal nonbanking activities by S&L owners
C)collective embezzlement by S&L owners
D)covering up illegal practices

Question 10

The major reason why most corporations dump their wastes onto the land and into the air and water is because they

A)see all the other corporations doing the same thing.
B)do not believe that their wastes actually harm the land.
C)have little commitment to the environment.
D)find it too costly to develop ecologically safer alternatives.

Question 11

One major reason for fraudulent activities in the insurance industry that was not present in the banking industry was

A)the involvement of organized deviance.
B)even more inadequate government regulation.
C)even more criminal participation in managing the companies.
D)the unsettled nature of the insurance industry.

Question 12

Which of the following statements about embezzlement is TRUE?

A)Low-level managers who embezzle funds do the most damage.
B)Most embezzlers join companies with the explicit purpose of stealing.
C)Most embezzlers have links to organized crime.
D)Most embezzlers are in management positions.

Question 13

Based on Sutherland's classical definition,two things characterize white-collar crime,that it is occupationally related and it is a(n)

A)opportunist crime.
B)crime requiring considerable organization.
C)act of a relatively respectable,upper-class person.
D)act committed by middle- and working-class persons.

Question 14

The proportion of the nation's entire work force that has committed employee theft is __________ percent.

A)10
B)30
C)75
D)90

Question 15

In the social profile of corporate crooks,the text's author lists many activities conducted by U.S.corporations,including moving corporate headquarters to avoid taxes,stacking the board of directors,and giving campaign contributions to candidates of both parties.What make these practices important is that they are

A)illegal.
B)legal.
C)harmful to corporations.
D)helpful to the general public.

Question 16

The program designed to clean up serious areas of environmental pollution is called

A)the EPA program.
B)the Superfund.
C)the National Environmental Recovery Program.
D)the Environmental Trust Fund.

Question 17

Dangerous foods and unsafe products are two examples of deviance against

A)employees.
B)the government.
C)the environment.
D)customers.

Question 18

The statement "Nestle makes the very best chocolate" is an example of

A)a corporate deviance.
B)a deviance against customers.
C)legal advertising.
D)consumer fraud.

Question 19

Which of the following statements about deviance against the government is FALSE?

A)The Internal Revenue Service is reluctant to investigate corporations for illegal evasion of taxes.
B)The veneer of corporate respectability often discourages suspicion of criminality.
C)Most corporations are honest and only rarely commit this type of white-collar deviance.
D)Corporations bribe politicians and government officials to influence legislation.

Question 20

In Sutherland's view,white-collar criminals are exemplified by

A)factory workers.
B)muggers.
C)Mafia extortionists.
D)business executives.

Question 21

The most common form of official violence is

A)police brutality against citizens.
B)the exposure of average citizens to dangerous chemicals.
C)strictly enforcing the tax laws.
D)the adding of experimental birth control liquids into the rations of Army soldiers.

Question 22

By itself,the deviant motivation in the form of fear or greed is not enough to compel a person or corporation to engage in economic deviance.Deviance is more likely to occur if

A)opportunities exist for carrying it out.
B)an individual's peers are also engaging in deviance.
C)an individual is making less money than their surrounding peers.
D)strain is high in the individual's life.

Question 23

The third and final stage through which an otherwise honest employee becomes an embezzler is

A)becoming aware of an opportunity for stealing.
B)developing what they perceive to be an unshareable financial problem.
C)rationalizing away the criminal nature of their act.
D)violating the company's stated values and norms.

Question 24

All of the following are ways for doctors to take part in white-collar deviance,EXCEPT for

A)fee splitting.
B)unnecessary surgery.
C)outright quackery.
D)fraudulently claiming payment for services.

Question 25

When President Reagan stated again and again that he did not know of the diversion of funds to the Nicaraguan rebels,he was involved in which of the following techniques of neutralization?

A)simply ignoring the deviance
B)promising an investigation
C)accusing the accuser
D)denying the obvious

Question 26

Political insiders call attempts to neutralize deviance

A)types of power abuse.
B)lies and distortions.
C)the ritual of wiggle.
D)the delabeling of actions.

Question 27

Personal use of campaign funds and political corruption are ways government officials abuse power to

A)gain money for personal use.
B)maintain power over others.
C)flaunt their arrogance.
D)defeat other candidates.

Question 28

White-collar deviance among corporations or their personnel exists because of strong criminal motivation and

A)a tendency toward violence.
B)severe social strain caused by America's social structure.
C)weak social controls.
D)poor socialization experiences and negative self-images.

Question 29

The sense of greed that drives much white-collar deviance is

A)a psychological abnormality.
B)is derived from a culture of competition.
C)the result of a culture that condemns greed.
D)becoming less and less influential.

Question 30

Which of the following is a type of election impropriety?

A)abusing the frank
B)political theft
C)receiving contributions in return for favors
D)government violence

Question 31

According to David Ermann and Richard Lundman,there are three reasons why government officials tend to purposely abuse their power.Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A)stronger deviant motivation
B)greater deviant opportunity
C)weaker social control
D)stronger innovative tendancies

Question 32

All of the following are ways elected officials commit deviant acts to maintain power,EXCEPT for

A)official use of campaign funds.
B)abusing the "frank."
C)soliciting corporate contributions.
D)flouting campaign finance laws.

Question 33

The killing of people by their government is called _____.

A)political abuse
B)political power
C)official violence
D)democide

Question 34

The most common deviance of lawyers is

A)overcharging clients.
B)accounting abuses.
C)fee-splitting.
D)fraudulent advertising.

Question 35

If a broker buys or sells stocks based on confidential information,it is called

A)fraud.
B)insider trading.
C)a violation of the security law.
D)churning.

Question 36

One reason why there is weaker control experienced by white-collar deviants is that they

A)fear they will lose their power or position.
B)are highly moral individuals.
C)have public opinion on their side.
D)have great power to avoid governmental action.

Question 37

All of the following are common activities of government official deviance,EXCEPT for

A)political corruption.
B)election improprieties.
C)official violence.
D)spying for the government.

Question 38

Which of the following is NOT a unique aspect of white-collar deviance?

A)the extensive use of an organization to commit deviance
B)the white-collar criminal's ability to maintain a noncriminal self-image
C)the unwitting cooperation of the victim
D)society's relative indifference toward the deviance

Question 39

Which of the following statements about white-collar deviance is TRUE?

A)Most white-collar criminals have a criminal self-image.
B)Most victims of white-collar deviance know they are being victimized.
C)The government is deeply involved in passing laws against white-collar deviance.
D)Little effort is made to catch white-collar criminals,and when caught,they seldom go to jail.

Question 40

It is doubtful that the government can wage an all-out war on white-collar deviance because

A)such criminals are too powerful or respectable.
B)the government is too busy arresting drug offenders.
C)jurors will sympathize too much with the white-collar defendants.
D)not enough laws exist to pursue a rigorous war on this deviance.

Question 41

American government officials are distinguishable by their remarkable lack of interest in pursuing money while in office.

Question 42

The two types of white-collar deviance are corporate deviance and occupational deviance.

Question 43

When obtaining compliance regarding corporate deviance,threats and penalties are more commonly used than negotiation and persuasion.

Question 44

The opportunities for overcharging clients as a lawyer have much to do with the intangible nature of legal work.

Question 45

The complexity of laws regulating political corruption often leads to __________ deviance.

A)official
B)unintentional
C)political
D)white-collar

Question 46

White-collar deviance is deviance committed by white-collar persons in the course of the offender's occupation for personal or corporate gain.

Question 47

The profit motive underlies the manufacturing and selling of unsafe products.

Question 48

Many workers who steal from their employers do so to keep their jobs interesting and challenging.

Question 49

The complexity and ambiguity of the tax laws have led to greater proliferation tax evasion.

Question 50

In most white-collar deviance,the victim unwittingly makes the offense possible because of ignorance or carelessness.

Question 51

The most obvious reason for corporations' tendency to be criminally negligent about their employees' health and safety is concern with profit maximization.

Question 52

Corporations and personnel with high position in a corporation have higher status and prestige and therefore a greater opportunity to commit deviance.

Question 53

Excessive,sky-high compensation tends to reduce instances of illegal business practices.

Question 54

The Superfund program created for the Environmental Protection Agency has rarely been used aggressively to stop pollution.

Question 55

Following the Savings & Loan scandal of the 1980s,the government has declared a war on white-collar criminals by prosecuting most of them.

Question 56

Embezzlers usually define their stealing as merely borrowing the money,for they insist they will pay it back soon.

Question 57

Tax evasion is so prevalent because of the complexity of the tax laws.

Question 58

Once convicted,white-collar criminals usually see their deviance as deviance and themselves as criminals.

Question 59

Most of the employee thieves are lower-class people who complain about low wages.

Question 60

False claims made through advertisements are illegal.

Question 61

Two reasons why white-collar deviance exists are greater opportunity and weaker social controls.

Question 62

U.S.corporations are much __________ likely to use payoffs to do business abroad-an extremely common practice in the global economy.

Question 63

The phrase "the ritual of wiggle" has been used to refer to the sly way in which government crime is typically committed.

Question 64

The most common form of official corruption is probably the abuse of the __________.

Question 65

One characteristic of white-collar criminals is that they see themselves as respectable persons,maintaining a noncriminal __________.

Question 66

Kenneth Lay of Enron and Scott Sullivan of WorldCom are two examples of corporate __________.

Question 67

Tax and securities violations and embezzlement are two examples of white-collar deviance committed as part of one's __________.

Question 68

Public officials will usually admit when wrongdoing has occurred when faced with overwhelming evidence of their deviance.

Question 69

When explaining white-collar crime,theorists opt for a multi-factor,layered approach,rather than a single-factor theory.

Question 70

The United States commits democide to a much smaller extent than many other nations.

Question 71

The majority of people who commit white collar crimes are prosecuted.

Question 72

Choose and analyze one type of deviant corporate behavior.What are some of the deviant activities that corporations undertake,and what are their causes and costs?

Question 73

Ambiguity in laws generally leads to greater corruption.

Question 74

Some evidence suggests that __________ and greed have much to do with deviant activities in the white-collar world.

Question 75

Most corporate deviance against the government involves __________.

Question 76

__________ deviance is both criminal and noncriminal forms of economic deviance carried out by high-status people as part of their occupations.

Question 77

If their illegal acts are uncovered,government officials rarely admit their guilt.

Question 78

Legal lawlessness is widespread,marked mostly by the practice of __________.

Question 79

Police brutality and forcing Native Americans off their lands are two examples of __________ violence.

Question 80

The "superabundance of ambiguous laws" makes it difficult to control government activity.