Deck 2: The Nature of Crime and Victimization

Question 1

The National Crime Victimization survey is prepared by what agency?

A)National Institute of Health
B)Bureau of Justice Statistics
C)Central Intelligence Agency
D)Federal Bureau of Investigation

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which view of crime infers that the great majority of citizens agree that certain behaviors must be outlawed or controlled and that the criminal law is designed to protect citizens from social harm?

A)Conflict
B)Consensus
C)Interactionist
D)Moral entrepreneur

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which type of data uses interviews and questionnaires with high school students?

A)Official
B)Victimization
C)Self-report
D)Observational

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What type of study is the best measure of unreported crimes?

A)Official records
B)Prison data
C)Self-report studies
D)Victimization surveys

Question 5

Most reported crimes occur during which season?

A)Summer
B)Fall
C)Spring
D)Winter

Question 6

Which of the following is not one of the problems associated with the validity of the Uniform Crime Report?

A)No federal crimes are reported.
B)Reports are voluntary and vary in accuracy.
C)If an offender commits multiple crimes, only the most serious is recorded.
D)Crime rates per 100,000 people are computed.

Question 7

What type of crime is not reported in Part I or Part II of the offense section of the UCR?

A)Drug offenses
B)Traffic violations
C)Liquor law violations
D)Sex offenses

Question 8

Which of the following is an index crime?

A)Kidnapping
B)Simple assault
C)Motor vehicle theft
D)Forgery

Question 9

The National Crime Victimization Survey asks participants to report on the frequency and characteristics of all but which one of the following crimes?

A)Rape
B)Murder
C)Robbery
D)Assault

Question 10

Which of the following is not a problem associated with the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)?

A)Over-reporting because of victim's misrepresentations of events.
B)Incomplete acts are lumped together with completed ones.
C)Underreporting stemming from the embarrassment of reporting crime.
D)Individuals may misrepresent the time line of events

Question 11

What is considered to be the most widely cited source of criminal statistics?

A)National Crime Victimization Surveys
B)National Indicators of Drug Abuse
C)Uniform Crime Reports
D)Bureau of Justice Statistics

Question 12

For serious violent crimes, the male-female arrest ratio is ____ males to 1 female.

A)2
B)3
C)4
D)5

Question 13

What data source relies on a multi-stage sample of housing units to collect information about citizen's encounters with criminals?

A)National Crime Victimization Survey
B)Uniform Crime Reports
C)Monitoring the Future Survey
D)National Incident-Based Reporting System

Question 14

Which of the following crimes is not included on the list of Part I index crimes documented in the Uniform Crime Reports?

A)Criminal homicide
B)Motor vehicle theft
C)Simple assault
D)Arson

Question 15

Which view of crime suggests that criminal law is structured to reflect the preferences and opinions of people who hold social power in a particular legal jurisdiction?

A)Conflict
B)Consensus
C)Interactionist
D)Moral entrepreneur

Question 16

Which view of crime argues that crime is a politically defined concept by those in power?

A)Conflict
B)Consensus
C)Interactionist
D)Moral entrepreneur

Question 17

Which regions of the country usually have significantly higher rates of crime?

A)The Midwest and New England
B)The West and the South
C)The Midwest and the South
D)New England and the West

Question 18

What percent of high school students carry guns at least some of the time?

A)10
B)20
C)30
D)40

Question 19

Which of the following statements about the validity of self-report data is false?

A)Serious chronic offenders usually cooperate.
B)Institutionalized youth are not generally represented.
C)Some surveys contain an overabundance of trivial offenses.
D)The "known group" can be used to assess validity.

Question 20

The greater the proportion of ____ in the population, the higher the crime rate and the greater the number of persistent offenders.

A)young women
B)young men
C)middle-aged women
D)middle-aged men

Question 21

As the number of guns in the population increases, so does the violent crime rate.

Question 22

Inmates re-entering society may have a significant influence on local crime rates because the recidivism rate from state custody is approximately 67 percent.

Question 23

Which view of criminality argues that people commit crimes if they believe it will provide immediate benefits without the threat of long-term risks?

A)Psychological theory
B)Social structure theory
C)Social process theory
D)Choice theory

Question 24

Which of the following groups experience violent crimes at a higher rate than other groups?

A)Whites
B)Latinos
C)Asians
D)African Americans

Question 25

Underdeveloped nations have murder rates significantly lower than the United States.

Question 26

Crime rates appear to be increasing around the world as they decline in the United States.

Question 27

Which view of crime suggests that individuals are born "good" and become "bad" as they mature?

A)Social control theory
B)Social structure theory
C)Social learning theory
D)Social reaction theory

Question 28

In a study entitled Delinquency in a Birth Cohort, researchers found that chronic offenders committed approximately ____ percent of offenses?

A)10
B)30
C)50
D)70

Question 29

It is estimated that there are more than one million gang members in the United States.

Question 30

Cesare Beccaria advocated:

A)routine activities theory
B)social structure theory
C)social process theory
D)choice theory

Question 31

Self-report studies indicate a significant rise in the number of teens using drugs.

Question 32

The availability of legalized abortion is one factor that has recently been theorized to explain the drop in crime rates.

Question 33

National Crime Victimization data show that criminal victimization has increased over the past 10 years.

Question 34

When a man is the victim of a violent crime, the perpetrator is usually described as a(n) ____.

A)Wife/Girlfriend
B)Acquaintance
C)Stranger
D)Relative

Question 35

African Americans account for almost 50 percent of Part I violent crime arrests.

Question 36

____ maintains that everyone has the potential to become criminal.

A)Social learning theory
B)Social control theory
C)Social reaction theory
D)Social structure theory

Question 37

____ theory recognizes that as people mature, the factors that influence their behavior change.

A)Social structure
B)Psychological
C)Developmental
D)Social process

Question 38

Research suggests that a distinct relationship exists between crime rates and urbanization.

Question 39

According to ____ theory, indicators of neighborhood disorder are highly predictive of crime rates.

A)Conflict
B)Social structure
C)Social process
D)Developmental

Question 40

____ theory focuses on the economic and political forces operating in a society and views these forces as the fundamental causes of criminality.

A)Conflict
B)Social structure
C)Developmental
D)Social control

Question 41

The ____________________ view of crime suggests that moral entrepreneurs define crime.

Question 42

Compare the trends in violent crime between the United States and one other country.

Question 43

____________________ is another name associated with the 8 index crimes from the Uniform Crime Reports.

Question 44

According to ____________________ theory, disruptions in life's major transitions can be destructive and ultimately can promote criminality.

Question 45

Murder, forcible rape, robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson, and ____________________ make up the FBI's Part I crimes.

Question 46

Summarize what self-report trends reveal about crime.

Question 47

Discuss the intersection of race, class, gender, and crime victimization.

Question 48

Outline the tenets and significance of developmental theory for explaining crime.

Question 49

____________________ theory points to research efforts linking family problems to crime as evidence that socialization, not social structure, is the key to understanding the onset of criminality.

Question 50

Describe the social, economic, personal, and demographic factors suggested by experts to account for the recent crime drop in the United States.

Question 51

____________________ question large groups of high school students about their participation in criminal or delinquent acts.

Question 52

Modern ____________________ theories of crime believe that elements of the environment interact with biological factors to control and influence behavior.

Question 53

Elaborate the three views on defining crime. Discuss how and why some behaviors become illegal and are considered crimes while others remain non-criminal.

Question 54

The ____________________ is one who has serious and persistent brushes with the law and whose behavior may be excessively violent and destructive.

Question 55

Reporting practices of victims and ____________________ practices are the two major criticisms of the UCR data.

Question 56

Discuss the Delinquency in a Birth Cohort study and how its findings have shaped justice policy.

Question 57

Compare and contrast social structure theory and social process theory.

Question 58

Explain the three significant methods used to measure the nature and extent of crime. Address the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Question 59

Crime, most simply, is a violation of ____________________.

Question 60

Explain violent crime using one of the theories elaborated in the text. Discuss why this theoretical explanation is the most useful for understanding violent crime.