Deck 6: Deviance and Crime

Question 1

People are more likely to report crime when they believe that something can be done about it (for example, apprehension of the perpetrator or retrieval of their property).

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Functionalists and conflict theorists are in agreement that social norms and criminal law are directed primarily at protecting the interests of the powerful in a society.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Arrest statistics are an accurate reflection of the crimes committed in the United States.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The Uniform Crime Report is an accurate count of the types and numbers of crimes committed in the United States.

Question 5

From a functionalist perspective, deviance is always functional.

Question 6

Labeling theory provides a comprehensive explanation of deviance and social control.

Question 7

Violent crime in the United States increased from 2011 to 2012.

Question 8

Critics and supporters of Hirschi's control theory agree that there is a correlation between weak social bonds and engaging in deviant behavior.

Question 9

From the functionalist perspective, a certain amount of deviance is necessary for the smooth functioning of society.

Question 10

Corporate crimes are often more costly in terms of money and lives lost than violent crimes.

Question 11

Metropolitan areas have the highest percentage of minority and women police officers.

Question 12

People who are labeled deviant are generally regarded as deviant by all those around them.

Question 13

Higher-income households are more likely than lower-income households to be the victims of property crimes and burglary.

Question 14

Sociologists find that there are similarities between gangs and high school cliques.

Question 15

The primary difference between organized crime and terrorism is motivation.

Question 16

Violent crime accounts for less than 5 percent of arrests in the United States.

Question 17

Sociologists believe that there is a set of behaviors within every society that is considered inherently deviant.

Question 18

The primary interest of sociologists and criminologists is how societies create and sustain social control.

Question 19

The three most common arrest categories for both men and women are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI), larceny, and minor or criminal mischief types of offenses.

Question 20

Two or three major groups control the majority of organized crime in the United States.

Question 21

__________ social control takes place through the socialization process.

A) ​External
B) ​Interior
C) ​Exterior
D) ​Internal

Question 22

From a sociological perspective, definitions of deviance originate_______________.

A) ​in the specific behavior or condition
B) ​with the people who witness or judge the behavior
C) ​in legal and civil statutes or regulations
D) ​with the identity of the person whose behavior is in question

Question 23

__________ is the systematic study of crime and the criminal justice system, including the police, courts, and prisons.

A) ​Sociology
B) ​Ecology
C) ​Criminology
D) ​Ethnomethodology

Question 24

__________ refers to a violation of law or the commission of a status offense (such as cutting school or running away from home) by young people.

A) ​Juvenile delinquency
B) ​Truancy
C) ​Youthful misconduct
D) ​Crime

Question 25

__________ refers to the use of negative sanctions that proscribe certain behaviors and set forth the punishments for rule breakers and nonconformists.

A) ​Socialization
B) ​External social control
C) ​Internal social control
D) ​Stigmatization

Question 26

__________ is the term for any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs.

A) ​Deviance
B) ​Crime
C) ​Stigma
D) ​Violence

Question 27

When a label of deviance is based on a person's intentional or inadvertent actions it is considered __________.

A) ​conditional
B) ​cultural
C) ​behavioral
D) ​conformist

Question 28

Durkheim used the term __________ for the condition in which social norms are weak, conflicting, or absent.

A) ​anomie
B) ​verstehen
C) ​mechanical solidarity
D) ​gemeinschaft

Question 29

Juveniles are subject to the same legal process and types of punishment as adults, only in a different system.

Question 30

A __________ is a behavior that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and/or other negative sanctions.

A) ​stigma
B) ​deviant act
C) ​crime
D) ​stigma

Question 31

The sociological term for the systematic practices that social groups develop in order to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws and to discourage deviance is __________.

A) ​policing
B) ​justice
C) ​social control
D) ​conformity

Question 32

The final police report for the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut concluded that __________.

A) ​Adam Lanza's mother raised him poorly
B) ​bullying caused Adam Lanza to act violently
C) ​there was no single, definitive cause
D) ​better gun control laws would have stopped the shootings

Question 33

The vast majority of criminal cases are never tried in court.

Question 34

The sociological term for a spoiled or devalued social identity is __________.

A) ​clique
B) ​deviance
C) ​crime
D) ​stigma

Question 35

Sociologist __________ believed that deviance is rooted in societal factors such as rapid social change and lack of social integration among people. As social integration (bonding and community involvement) decreased, deviance and crime increased.

A) ​Robert Merton
B) ​Edwin Sutherland
C) ​Walter Reckless
D) ​Emile Durkheim

Question 36

In contemporary societies, the primary mechanism of external social control is __________.

A) ​the criminal justice system
B) ​parents
C) ​the schools
D) ​the church

Question 37

Which function of deviance is illustrated by the recent Occupy Wall Street protesters?​

A) ​Deviance clarifies rules.
B) ​Deviance unites a group.
C) ​Deviance promotes social change.
D) ​Deviance prevents social chaos.

Question 38

Which of these statements is not part of Durkheim's perspective on deviance?​

A) ​Deviance is rooted in social factors like rapid social change.
B) ​As social integration decreases, deviance increases.
C) ​Deviance is functional for society.
D) ​Deviance is only common in contemporary societies.

Question 39

A group of protestors appeals their arrest on the grounds that police officers overstepped their authority. The case goes to court. This scenario best illustrates which of these functions of deviance?​

A) ​Deviance clarifies rules.
B) ​Deviance unites a group.
C) ​Deviance promotes social change.
D) ​Deviance prevents social chaos.

Question 40

Which of these is not a function of deviance described by contemporary functionalists?​

A) ​Deviance clarifies rules.
B) ​Deviance prevents anomie.
C) ​Deviance promotes social change.
D) ​Deviance unites a group.

Question 41

According to Merton's strain theory, __________ occurs when people accept culturally approved goals and pursue them through approved means.

A) ​conformity
B) ​innovation
C) ​rejection
D) ​rebellion

Question 42

Members of __________ seek to acquire a "rep" (reputation) by fighting over "turf" (territory) and adopting a value system of toughness, courage, and similar qualities.

A) ​rebellist gangs
B) ​criminal gangs
C) ​conflict gangs
D) ​retreatist gangs

Question 43

According to Merton's __________ theory, people feel tension when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals.

A) ​opportunity
B) ​conflict
C) ​developmental
D) ​strain

Question 44

Gangs provide members with a means of attaining higher status and material rewards that may otherwise seem unavailable to them. Cloward and Ohlin have coined the concept of __________ to refer to this.

A) ​strain theory
B) ​criminal careers
C) ​illegitimate opportunity structures
D) ​differential opportunity theory

Question 45

According to Merton's strain theory, __________ occurs when people challenge both the approved goals and the approved means for achieving them yet advocate an alternative set of goals or means.

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

Question 46

According to functionalists, acts of civil disobedience (including lunch counter sit-ins and bus boycotts) exemplify which function of deviance?

A) ​Deviance clarifies rules.
B) ​Deviance unites a group.
C) ​Deviance promotes social change.
D) ​Deviance prevents social chaos.

Question 47

According to Merton's strain theory, __________ occurs when people abandon both the approved goals and the approved means of achieving them.

A) ​rebellion
B) ​retreatism
C) ​ritualism
D) ​conformity

Question 48

Sociologists __________ suggested that, for deviance to occur, people must have access to illegitimate opportunity structures-circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels.

A) ​Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales
B) ​Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
C) ​Carl Taylor and Anne Campbell
D) ​Herbert Spencer and Auguste Comte

Question 49

Drug use and addiction is prevalent within gangs that are unable to gain success through legitimate means and are unwilling to do so through illegal ones.

A) ​retreatist
B) ​conflict
C) ​rebellist
D) ​criminal

Question 50

Sometimes people give up on societal goals but still adhere to the socially approved means for achieving them; Merton termed this __________.

A) ​innovation
B) ​retreatism
C) ​ritualism
D) ​conformity

Question 51

A socioeconomically disadvantaged teenager decides that she must resort to crime in order to buy some clothes she wants. This teenager's behavior is an example of __________.

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

Question 52

Based on their research, sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin identified three basic gang types on the basis of the type of illegitimate opportunity structure available in a specific area. Which of these is not one of the types they identified?​

A) ​criminal gang
B) ​retreatist gang
C) ​conflict gang
D) ​rebellist gang

Question 53

Cloward and Ohlin identified three basic gang types based on the type of illegitimate opportunity structure available in a specific area. The __________ is devoted to theft, extortion, and other illegal means of securing an income.

A) ​retreatist gang
B) ​criminal gang
C) ​conflict gang
D) ​rebellist gang

Question 54

Applying Merton's strain theory, skid-row alcoholics and drug addicts illustrate the concept of __________.

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

Question 55

Merton described how people adapt to cultural goals and the approved ways of achieving them through ___________.

A) ​innovation
B) ​resignation
C) ​competition
D) ​deviation

Question 56

According to Cloward and Ohlin, __________ gangs emerge in communities that do not provide either legitimate or illegitimate opportunities.

A) ​conflict
B) ​retreatist
C) ​criminal
D) ​rebellist

Question 57

A minister who is opposed to war conducts a nonviolent protest at a local military installation, thus committing a trespassing violation. Applying Merton's typology from strain theory, this behavior is an example of __________.

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

Question 58

A young woman graduates from high school with honors and attends a prestigious university, where she completes her degree; she gets a good job; she marries and starts planning for the future. This woman's behavior is an example of __________.

A) ​rebellion
B) ​innovation
C) ​conformity
D) ​rejection

Question 59

According to Merton's strain theory, __________ occurs when people accept society's goals but adopt disapproved means for achieving them.

A) ​conformity
B) ​innovation
C) ​rebellion
D) ​ritualism

Question 60

__________ argue that the lifestyles considered deviant by political and economic elites are most likely to be defined as illegal.

A) ​Symbolic interactionists
B) ​Conflict theorists
C) ​Functionalists
D) ​Postmodern theorists

Question 61

The __________ feminist approach explains women's deviance and crime as a rational response to the gender discrimination that women experience in families and the workplace.

A) ​radical
B) ​liberal
C) ​Marxist (socialist)
D) ​conservative

Question 62

Hirschi's social bonding theory emphasizes__________________________.

A) ​attachment to other people
B) ​a lack of commitment to conformity
C) ​involvement in unconventional activities
D) ​willingness to rebel against authority

Question 63

Reckless suggested that many people do not resort to deviance because of __________, which may include supportive family and friends, reasonable social expectations, and supervision by others.

A) ​formal containments
B) ​inner containments
C) ​informal containments
D) ​outer containments

Question 64

Becker coined the term __________ to refer to those who use their own perspectives on "right" and "wrong" to create the rules about what constitutes deviant or conventional behavior.

A) ​significant others
B) ​moral entrepreneurs
C) ​reference groups
D) ​power elite

Question 65

In the early twentieth century drug laws were actively enforced in an effort to control immigrant workers, especially the Chinese, who were being exploited by the railroads and other industries. This example supports the perspective of __________.

A) ​differential association theory
B) ​illegitimate opportunity theory
C) ​Marxist critical theory
D) ​Merton's strain theory

Question 66

Sutherland's __________ theory states that people have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently interact with individuals who are more favorable toward deviance than conformity.

A) ​illegitimate opportunity
B) ​strain
C) ​status frustration
D) ​differential association

Question 67

Although there is no single feminist perspective on deviance and crime, three schools of thought have emerged, including the___________________________.

A) ​liberal feminist approach
B) ​ultrafeminist approach
C) ​conservative feminist approach
D) ​Durkheimian feminist approach

Question 68

A branch of the conflict perspective, Marxist/critical theory views deviance and crime as a result of __________.

A) ​the capitalist economic system
B) ​the strain between the goals of society and the means of achieving those goals
C) ​labeling
D) ​socialization by people who have criminal backgrounds

Question 69

During the mid-1970s, advocates of __________ theory predicted that women's crime rates would increase significantly as a result of the women's liberation movement.

A) ​emancipation
B) ​functionalist
C) ​critical
D) ​symbolic interaction

Question 70

Differential association explains________________________________.

A) ​how one may be socialized into deviance
B) ​why deviance is less likely to occur when one has long-term intense relationships with those who violate the law
C) ​the role of loosely connected groups in learning deviance
D) ​why some people who are heavily exposed to others who break the law still adhere to conventional behavior

Question 71

__________ argues that deviant behavior is learned in personal interaction with friends and family.

A) ​Differential association
B) ​Strain theory
C) ​Control theory
D) ​Labeling theory

Question 72

Criminologist Ronald Akers created the __________ theory, which combines differential association theory with elements of psychological learning theory, suggesting that both deviant behavior and conventional behavior are learned through the same social processes.

A) ​strain
B) ​illegitimate opportunity
C) ​differential reinforcement
D) ​social bonding

Question 73

Research shows that __________ are more likely to be perceived as members of the dangerous classes and receive stricter sentences in criminal courts.

A) ​young, single, rural males
B) ​young, married, urban males
C) ​young, married, rural males
D) ​young, single, urban males

Question 74

Sociologist Walter Reckless suggests that many people do not resort to deviance because of __________ containments such as self-control, a sense of responsibility, and resistance to diversions.

A) ​inner
B) ​formal
C) ​outer
D) ​informal

Question 75

The symbolic interactionist approach to deviance includes the ___________ theory.

A) ​illegitimate opportunity
B) ​status frustration
C) ​control
D) ​labeling

Question 76

Hirschi's control theory is based on the importance of __________ in determining the likelihood of deviant behavior.

A) ​formal containments
B) ​social bonding
C) ​fear of reprisal
D) ​social class

Question 77

Based on the symbolic interactionist theory of sociologists Charles H. Cooley and George H. Mead, the __________ theory states that deviance is a socially constructed process in which social control agencies designate certain people as deviants, and they, in turn, come to accept the marker placed upon them and begin to act accordingly.

A) ​strain
B) ​labeling
C) ​differential association
D) ​social control

Question 78

__________ focus on social processes, such as how people develop a self-concept and learn conforming behavior through socialization. According to this approach, deviance is learned in the same way as conformity-through engagement with others.

A) ​Conflict theorists
B) ​Symbolic interactionists
C) ​Functionalists
D) ​Postmodern theorists

Question 79

The __________ feminist approach is based on the assumption that women are exploited by both capitalism and patriarchy. From this approach, women's criminal behavior is linked to gender conflict created by the economic and social struggle that often takes place in postindustrial societies.

A) ​liberal
B) ​radical
C) Marxist (socialist)
D) ​conservative

Question 80

The __________ argues that women's crime originates in patriarchy (male domination over females). This approach focuses on social forces that shape women's lives and experiences and shows how exploitation may trigger deviant behavior and criminal activities.

A) ​radical feminist approach
B) ​conservative feminist approach
C) ​liberal feminist approach
D) ​Marxist (socialist) feminist approach