Deck 5: Deviance and Crime

Question 1

Deviance is anything people think is deviant.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Norms seldom allow for variant behavior.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

In modern times,student cheating on college campuses has become a relatively uncommon pattern of behavior.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Deviance can be viewed as having positive,or "integrative," consequences for social life.

Question 5

Informal sanctions are reactions to deviance that tend to occur in small communities,among groups of friends,and in the family.

Question 6

By occasionally engaging in deviant behavior,we acquire a stronger self-identity and a sense of independent well-being.

Question 7

Child abuse is one example of deviant behavior that has been "defined down."

Question 8

The example of the Etoro of New Guinea serves to show how deviance is not absolute,but rather relative to people and their culture.

Question 9

Even though norms are frequently violated,they are still viewed sociologically as important mechanisms of social control and social organization.

Question 10

Since there are many systems of morality in existence across societies and over time,we cannot understand deviant behavior without understanding the normative context in which it may occur.

Question 11

Ostracism among friends is a common form of formal sanctions.

Question 12

What we think of as deviant can be an ordinary part of everyday life.

Question 13

Deviance is viewed as dysfunctional for society in that it undermines our willingness to play our roles and contribute to the larger social setting.

Question 14

Without norms for governing behavior,family would be the only institution capable of maintaining organized interaction.

Question 15

Nonconformist patterns occur because they are not known to us in the context of our own society.

Question 16

Deviance is a property conferred upon particular behaviors by social definitions.

Question 17

When they study deviance,sociologists tend to focus on what is "wrong" with people who deviate.

Question 18

Some people believe that America has been "defining deviancy down" in an effort to explain away and make "normal" what was viewed as "deviant" not too many years ago.

Question 19

Like in the United States,the people of the Etoro in New Guinea believe that oral sex with boys should lead to the loss of reputation and to a long prison term.

Question 20

Because norms are not always clear,each time a member of the social group is censured for deviant behavior,the deviance tends to help highlight and sharpen the meaning of the norm.

Question 21

Index crimes are increasing in the United States.

Question 22

Secondary deviance is behavior that violates social norms but usually goes unnoticed by the agents of social control.

Question 23

Sociologically speaking,deviance is a property inherent in one's behavior.

Question 24

An important concept in the analysis of deviance is that

A) whether something is deviant depends on who is evaluating it.
B) determining whether an act is deviant is an objective,absolute process.
C) when important norms are violated,social control is lost.
D) deviance can only be considered as a specific act and it never can be viewed in a relative manner.

Question 25

A large number of white-collar criminals are prosecuted and convicted,and they usually receive sentences comparable to those of other criminals.

Question 26

Labeling theorists note that a minority of the members of society engage in deviant behavior by violating some norms.

Question 27

In modern societies,the ___________ is the mechanism by which a good many norms - laws - are enforced.

A) neighborhood
B) town hall
C) state
D) informal group

Question 28

Crime is an act of deviance that is prohibited by law.

Question 29

Control theory's claims people conform as an outgrowth of ideas from the conflict perspective.

Question 30

Richard Quinney said the U.S.legal system reflects the interests of American society as a whole.

Question 31

Edwin H.Sutherland's differential association theory builds on the interactionist perspective.

Question 32

Structural strain theory suggests that conflicts between socially accepted goals and socially accepted ways of achieving them may produce deviant behavior.

Question 33

An increasing number of U.S.citizens support legalizing marijuana.

Question 34

Merton argued that when a society extols common symbols of success for all while restricting the access to approved means for acquiring such goals,then deviant behavior is generated.

Question 35

Women accounted for 24 percent of all arrests in 2004.

Question 36

According to the text's discussion of cheating among college students,

A) cheating is uncommon.
B) some studies suggest that the percentage of students who cheat in college is at least 90 percent and may be as high as 99 percent.
C) the motive for cheating usually has little to do with career enhancement.
D) None of the choices are correct.

Question 37

Identity theft may be the most dramatic and widespread of the new high-tech crimes.

Question 38

Without norms for governing behavior,

A) life would go on without much change.
B) interaction in such groups as families would be impossible.
C) we would still intuit what is permissible behavior.
D) we would still be able to anticipate what people might do in different social settings.

Question 39

Anomie is a social condition in which people have difficulty identifying the social norms guiding their behavior because the norms may be weak,unclear,or conflicting.

Question 40

Sociologically speaking,____________ is behavior that a considerable number of people in a society view as reprehensible and beyond the limits of tolerance.

A) crime
B) mental illness
C) social control
D) deviance

Question 41

Internalization occurs when

A) norms are "intuited" from the behavior of others.
B) the individual questions the legitimacy of the norms.
C) normative expectations are sharpened.
D) we understand and believe in the norms.

Question 42

Deviance facilitates

A) conformity.
B) a clearer understanding of social norms.
C) stronger group ties.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 43

Many nonconformist patterns do not occur to us because

A) we are culture bound.
B) Americans are quite relativistic in their views of other ways of doing things.
C) what we see in other cultures we tend not to like.
D) conformity is so ingrained in our attitudes.

Question 44

Among the Etoro of New Guinea,

A) homosexual acts between adult males and young boys are mildly rejected as a lower-level pattern of deviance.
B) homosexual acts between adult males and young boys are strongly rejected just as they are in the United States.
C) oral sex with boys is considered a normal and essential part of everyday life.
D) homosexuality does not exist.

Question 45

According to Daniel Patrick Moynihan,Americans are "defining deviancy down" in order to

A) make "normal" what used to be labeled as "deviant."
B) make tolerable what used to be viewed as intolerable behavior.
C) redefine behavior that was previously viewed as illness into behavior identified as sinful and evil.
D) make "normal" what used to be labeled as "deviant." and make tolerable what used to be viewed as intolerable behavior are correct.

Question 46

Deviance is often

A) defined by those who have the power to make the social definitions stick.
B) nonrelative to time and place.
C) seen as decadent,depraved,and evil,but not as an illness.
D) nonrelative to time and place and seen as decadent,depraved,and evil,but not as an illness are correct.

Question 47

The dysfunctions of deviance

A) help society through the reinforcement of social organization.
B) include the undermining of our willingness to play our roles and contribute to the larger social scene.
C) result in a stronger family life.
D) help us to better trust our social institutions.

Question 48

The methods and strategies that regulate behavior constitute

A) social structure.
B) social control.
C) deviance.
D) norms.

Question 49

Fines,expulsion from school,and imprisonment are examples of

A) informal sanctions.
B) formal sanctions.
C) deviance reinforcement.
D) punishments that have little to do with the normative system itself.

Question 50

According to Durkheim,a social condition in which people find it difficult to guide their behavior by norms they experience as weak,unclear,or conflicting is called

A) stress.
B) anomie.
C) deviance.
D) schizophrenia.

Question 51

Internalization,the structuring of our world experiences,and formal/informal sanctions are types of

A) dysfunctions of deviance.
B) functions of deviance.
C) social control processes.
D) anomie in operation.

Question 52

When biologists and psychologists look at deviants,they typically ask

A) what is wrong with them or at least different about them.
B) why some acts are defined as deviant in one setting and not in another.
C) why some people are severely punished while others are not punished for the same behavior.
D) why the incidence of deviance varies from group to group.

Question 53

Deviance depends to some extent on

A) who does the defining.
B) who has the power to make the definitions stick.
C) the time and place in which the deviance occurs.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 54

Examples of informal sanctions are

A) fines and imprisonment.
B) community service as a court-mandated punishment.
C) ridicule and ostracism from a group of former friends.
D) probation as the result of a plea bargain.

Question 55

Smoking,child abuse,and family violence are all examples of behavior that have been

A) defined downward.
B) viewed always as depraved.
C) redefined upward.
D) receiving less media attention than they did in the 1970s.

Question 56

When individuals incorporate within their personalities the standards of behavior prevalent within the larger society,the process is called

A) internalization.
B) socialization.
C) conformity.
D) normative intervention.

Question 57

In the real world,norms allow some latitude for behavior that is not strictly conformist.This is called

A) classic anomie.
B) a zone of permissible variation.
C) nonsense,sociologically speaking.
D) social disorganization.

Question 58

The example of the Etoro of New Guinea shows that

A) morality has no basic importance to human experience.
B) deviance is relative and a matter of social definition.
C) "anything goes" in matters of human sexuality.
D) moralities across different societies tend to be very similar in content.

Question 59

________ is not a sociological approach to understanding deviance.

A) Cultural transmission theory
B) Anomie theory
C) Hereditary predisposition perspective
D) Labeling perspective

Question 60

Deviance is

A) a property inherent in certain forms of behavior.
B) a property conferred upon particular behaviors in an absolute manner.
C) what people say it is.
D) a behavior that often exists independently of norms.

Question 61

Crime is a normal characteristic of capitalism.This view is most likely to be expressed by

A) conflict theorists.
B) functionalists.
C) labeling theorists.
D) cultural transmission theorists.

Question 62

From Merton's perspective,those who abandon or scale down the goals of success,but compulsively abide by the rules as some bureaucrats do,are

A) innovators.
B) rebels.
C) retreatists.
D) ritualists.

Question 63

Critics of Merton's structural strain theory note that Merton

A) doesn't emphasize conformity enough.
B) ignores the ways in which people shape their definitions of the world about them.
C) ignores the fact that not all deviance stems from gaps between goals and means.
D) ignores the ways in which people shape their definitions of the world about them and ignores the fact that not all deviance stems from gaps between goals and means are correct.

Question 64

According to labeling theorists,deviance that individuals may adopt in response to negative labels is

A) functional deviance.
B) primary deviance.
C) secondary deviance.
D) tertiary deviance.

Question 65

Studies by Messner and Rosenfeld suggest the strain toward deviance,particularly crime,is

A) stronger when the economy is a relatively weak institution in the society.
B) stronger when the economy is the dominant institution in the society.
C) not related to the position of the economy in the society.
D) weaker when penal institutions dominate the society.

Question 66

Which of the following is NOT one of the categories of crime outlined by Richard Quinney?

A) crimes of ultimatum
B) crimes of domination
C) crimes of resistance
D) predatory crime

Question 67

________ was one of the first people to suggest that we acquire deviant behavior much as we acquire other behaviors.

A) Robert Merton
B) Gabriel Tarde
C) Peter Rosemont
D) Karl Marx

Question 68

Individuals learn deviance primarily in intimate groups of deviant others,such as small groups of friends.This view typifies

A) differential association theory.
B) control theory.
C) Freudian theory.
D) labeling theory.

Question 69

From Merton's perspective,those who reject both culturally approved goals and means and substitute new norms are

A) innovators.
B) ritualists.
C) rebels.
D) retreatists.

Question 70

Conflict theorists argue that the most important question to ask regarding deviance is

A) How do deviants differ from nondeviants?
B) How do different groups' values and norms increase their chances of engaging in culturally transmitted deviance?
C) Which group will be able to translate its values into the rules of society and make these rules stick?
D) Which group will experience the anomie necessary to give rise to deviance?

Question 71

Merton described five responses to anomie.An embezzler stealing money from his company to fund his high mortgage payments is an example of a(n)

A) conformist.
B) innovator.
C) rebel.
D) retreatist.

Question 72

Labeling theory essentially argues that

A) society needs to place more emphasis on the labeling of deviants so deviants can be singled out.
B) labeling deviants helps them come to grips with their personal problems.
C) often those who are labeled as deviant develop a deviant identity and embark on a career of deviance.
D) the labeling of people as deviant is a latent function arising from the world of crime and delinquency.

Question 73

According to Merton,anomie represents society's struggle between its

A) conformists and deviants.
B) values and attitudes.
C) goals and means.
D) successes and failures.

Question 74

Edwin Sutherland's theory of differential association illustrates the ________ sociological perspective on deviance.

A) structural strain
B) cultural transmission
C) conflict
D) labeling

Question 75

The cultural transmission perspective was developed in part from the research of a group of sociologists at the University of Chicago who concluded that

A) deviance was a problem of morality.
B) deviance is primarily a product of economic conditions.
C) deviance is culturally passed from one generation to the next.
D) people become deviant genetically.

Question 76

When access to socially approved means of success (material wealth)is blocked or frustrated,Merton would argue this is a condition of

A) high anxiety.
B) justified frustration.
C) structural strain.
D) frustration-aggression.

Question 77

Richard Quinney contended that to understand crime we have to understand the development of the political economy of capitalist society.This is a reflection of which perspective?

A) conflict
B) functionalist
C) interactionist
D) developmental

Question 78

Labeling theorists promote the idea that

A) we all engage in deviant behavior by violating some norms.
B) deviance is something inherent in the "badness" of the act.
C) we engage in deviant acts only when pushed beyond normal stress limits.
D) deviants perceive right and wrong differently than nondeviants.

Question 79

According to labeling theorists,behavior that violates social norms but goes unnoticed by agents of social control is called

A) primary deviance.
B) secondary deviance.
C) tertiary deviance.
D) ambulatory deviance.

Question 80

Marxists regard ________ as a product of the moral degeneration and estrangement fostered by the oppression and exploitation of the poor,women,and African Americans or other minorities?

A) alcholism
B) mental illness
C) prostitution
D) All of the choices are correct.