Deck 1: An Overview of Crime and Criminology

Question 1

The ______ school of thought emphasizes human rationality and free will in its explanations of criminal behavior.

A)biosocial
B)classical
C)positivist
D)psychological

Answer 1

B

Question 2

According to John Hagan, which of the following criteria helps us differentiate between real crimes and those which are arbitrary and socially constructed?

A)consensus
B)harm
C)severity
D)all of these

Answer 2

D

Question 3

According to Thomas Sowell's typology, those who have a/an ______ vision deny an innate human nature, viewing human activities as formed anew in each different culture.

A)classical vision
B)constrained vision
C)phrenological vision
D)unconstrained vision

Answer 3

D

Question 4

According to Thomas Sowell's typology, those who have a/an ______ believe that human activities are restricted by an innate human nature that is self-centered and largely unalterable.

A)classical vision
B)constrained vision
C)phrenological vision
D)unconstrained vision

Question 5

Driving 26 miles per hour in an area where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour would best be described as an act

A)mala in se
B)mala prohibita
C)of overcriminalization
D)of felonious proportions

Question 6

______ is an interdisciplinary science that gathers and analyzes data on crime and criminal behavior.

A)criminology
B)theory
C)sociology
D)law

Question 7

Lombroso's theory of the born criminal was aligned with which school of thought?

A)biosocial
B)classical
C)positivist
D)psychological

Question 8

Criminologists use what is known as the ______ to try to answer the questions they ask rather than simply speculate about the questions.

A)scientific procedure
B)scientific method
C)technique of natural science
D)observational analysis

Question 9

Universally condemned crimes are known as ______.

A)mala in se
B)mala prohibita
C)actus reus
D)mens rea

Question 10

When two factors are correlates, it means that

A)One of the factors causes changes to the other.
B)The two factors vary together.
C)They compose a theory of crime.
D)They have been socially constructed.

Question 11

When criminologists study ______, they study individuals who commit harmful acts, regardless of the legal status of those acts.

A)crime
B)criminology
C)criminality
D)law

Question 12

Which of the following is an example of an indirect cost of crime?

A)maintenance costs of jails and prisons
B)salaries of law enforcement personnel
C)the purchase of police cars
D)the expense of private surveillance and security devices

Question 13

A(n) ______ is a set of logically interconnected propositions explaining how phenomena are related.

A)theory
B)hypothesis
C)ideology
D)policy

Question 14

Crimes that are time and culture bound are described as ______.

A)mala in se
B)mala prohibita
C)actus reus
D)mens rea

Question 15

During the Progressive Era (from about 1890 to 1920), ______ became the primary disciplinary home of criminology.

A)biology
B)psychology
C)sociology
D)theology

Question 16

______ is a way of looking at the world, a general emotional picture of how things should be.

A)theory
B)ideology
C)vision
D)analysis

Question 17

Socially harmful acts

A)are deemed to be in need of regulation but not by the criminal law except under exceptional circumstances
B)are socially harmful, but not sufficiently so to require the heavy hand of the criminal law
C)are considered so socially harmful that they come under the purview of the criminal justice system
D)include reneging on a contract

Question 18

______ are specific statements about the relationships that we expect to find between and among factors.

A)theories
B)hypotheses
C)educated guesses
D)formulations

Question 19

The belief that science can provide answers for everything is most characteristic of the ______ school of thought.

A)ideological
B)positivist
C)progressive
D)renaissance

Question 20

Renaissance

A)was a period between approximately 1450 and 1600
B)is associated with advances in art, literature, music, and philosophy
C)means rebirth, and refers to the rediscovery of the thinking traditions of the ancient Greeks
D)all of these

Question 21

Prostitution is an act that would be considered mala in se.

Question 22

In which case did the Supreme Court invalidate anti-flag burning statutes as unconstitutional?

A)Texas v.Johnson
B)Lawrence v.Texas
C)Bowers v.Hardwick
D)Mapp v.Ohio

Question 23

In the eyes of the law, a person reneging on a contract is handled as a ______.

A)criminal violation
B)private wrong
C)social construction
D)socially harmful act

Question 24

Harms outside the purview of the criminal justice system include:

A)core offenses
B)all social harms
C)all crimes
D)all of these

Question 25

Criminality is an identifiable trait that some people possess, and others do not.

Question 26

Mala in se crimes tend to arouse the most intense emotional responses, because they trigger a sense of threat to our survival.

Question 27

The unconstrained vision denies the existence of an innate human nature, instead holding that human nature is formed anew in each different culture.

Question 28

The first step in detecting causes of crime is

A)deriving a theory
B)testing a hypothesis
C)discovering correlates
D)determining the level of analysis

Question 29

_____ criminologists tend to believe that the only real cause of crime is capitalism.

A)atavist
B)Marxist
C)positivist
D)classical

Question 30

Which of the following is an intentional act in violation of the criminal law committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the state?

A)criminality
B)crime
C)criminology
D)deviance

Question 31

Which of the following is an example of a direct cost of crime?

A)protective devices
B)insurance costs
C)surveillance and security devices
D)salaries and benefits of personnel

Question 32

Criminality is a legal term.

Question 33

Policy

A)is a set of logically interconnected propositions explaining how phenomena are related, and from which a number of hypotheses can be derived and tested
B)is the segment of the phenomenon of interest that is measured and analyzed
C)is a course of action designed to solve some problem that has been selected from among alternative courses of action
D)is an interdisciplinary science that gathers and analyzes data on crime and criminal behavior

Question 34

Questions of cause and effect should be answered at the same level of analysis at which they were posed.

Question 35

The Enlightenment is associated with advances in mathematics, science, and the dignity and worth of the individual as exemplified by a concern for human rights.

Question 36

Predictive scope

A)maintains that a theory has merit and is useful to the extent that it accurately predicts what is observed
B)maintains that if two competing theories are essentially equal in terms of the first two criteria, then the less complicated one is considered more "elegant"
C)asserts that a theory must have the quality of being falsifiable or disprovable
D)refers to the scope or range of the theory and thus the scope or range of the hypotheses that can be derived from it

Question 37

Cesare Lombroso's concept of the born criminal is also known as his theory of ______.

A)atavism
B)ideal types
C)phrenology
D)somatotypes

Question 38

A hypothesis is best described as a set of interconnected propositions that explain how phenomena are related.

Question 39

Criminology is an interdisciplinary field.

Question 40

What constitutes a crime can be defined in and out of existence by courts and legislators.

Question 41

A correlate is that segment of the phenomenon of interest that is measured and analyzed.

Question 42

Briefly explain the difference between socially harmful acts and private wrongs.

Question 43

Briefly contrast the constrained vision of human nature with the unconstrained vision of human nature.

Question 44

Provide two examples of acts that would be considered mala prohibita.
Possible Answers: prostitution, drug dealing

Question 45

The constrained vision maintains that there is an innate human nature that is self-centered and largely unalterable.

Question 46

Briefly explain the concept of correlation.How do we know if two factors are correlates?

Question 47

The definition of crime is problematic because acts that are defined as criminal vary across time and culture.

Question 48

The 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a strong resurgence of biosocial theories, which view behavior as the result of biological factors interacting with the environments of the actors involved.

Question 49

Briefly explain the difference between the Renaissance and Enlightenment in regards to crime and criminality.

Question 50

The criteria for judging the merits of a theory include predictive accuracy, predictive scope, simplicity, and falsifiability.

Question 51

Define ideology.

Question 52

Explain the difference between mala in se and mala prohibita.

Question 53

The emotional pain and suffering experienced by crime victims is easy to quantify.

Question 54

Briefly explain how the concept of criminality differs from legal definitions of who is criminal.

Question 55

Define theory.

Question 56

The role of human judgment in determining what is categorized as crime renders the category arbitrary.

Question 57

The basic idea behind phrenology was that cognitive functions are localized in the brain, and that the parts regulating the most dominant functions were bigger than parts regulating the less dominant ones.

Question 58

The Industrial Revolution brought with it more secular thinking regarding crime and criminality.

Question 59

Provide two examples of acts that would be considered mala in se.
Possible Answers: murder, rape, robbery.

Question 60

Criminality is the scientific study of crime and criminals.

Question 61

Describe the role of ideology in criminology.How do constrained and unconstrained visionaries differ in their views of human nature and crime?

Question 62

In criminological/sociological study, what are some of the limitations to defining as only those actions in violation of criminal law? Do you feel that criminologists should limit their study in this way? Support your response.

Question 63

Discuss crime as a moving target.Are laws stable across time and culture? Support your response.

Question 64

Provide an overview of some of the major historical developments of criminological theory.Be sure to identify and describe at least three of the main eras or schools of thought from the history of criminology.

Question 65

Explain the continuum of harmful acts.How do socially harmful acts compare to private wrongs?

Question 66

Discuss the significance of criminological theory in shaping criminal justice policies.

Question 67

Define mala in se and mala prohibita.Discuss the differences between these two types of acts and give examples of each.

Question 68

Define level of analysis.

Question 69

Define criminology and discuss the common questions asked in pursuit of better understanding this interdisciplinary science.

Question 70

Discuss the role of theory in criminology.What is a theory? What are the criteria for judging a theory? How do levels of analysis relate to how to think about theories?

Question 71

Briefly explain the views of the classical school of criminology in regard to explaining criminal behavior.

Question 72

Provide two examples of direct and indirect costs of crime.