Deck 17: Crime and Justice Myths

Question 1

Which of the following statements is an example of a factual claim?

A) Crime is out of control
B) We must crack down on crime
C) We must increase the use of rehabilitation
D) The reason crime is out of control is due to the lack of quality parenting

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Why do some scholars say that the criminal justice system is designed to fail?

A) Officers can never catch all criminals.
B) The criminal justice system will never have enough money to combat crime in effective ways.
C) For budgetary reasons, the criminal justice system must not stop all crime to prove it needs more money.
D) Corruption runs rampant in all of the criminal justice system and keeps effective crime control strategies from working.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which is not one of Bohm's reasons for how the general public contributes to crime mythology?

A) apathy
B) a lack of consciousness
C) relying on atypical information
D) relying on inaccurate communication

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following crime control policies that have been created from myth has/have actually reduced crime?

A) three-strikes laws
B) the war on drugs
C) increased juvenile incarceration
D) None of these policies have reduced crime.

Question 5

According to the text, approximately ________ of inmates in the nation's prisons and jails are not there for their first time.

A) 10 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 70 percent

Question 6

________ refers to the process of events and information being repeatedly cycled through media and culture, often reemerging in new contexts.

A) recycling
B) reconditioning
C) looping
D) fake news

Question 7

According to the text, which of the following news sources has the greatest impact on influencing crime myths?

A) national television news
B) local television news
C) newspapers
D) internet news

Question 8

Crime news programs tend to exaggerate the proportion of:

A) male victims
B) black victims
C) Hispanic victims
D) female victims

Question 9

Discrepancies in local television news programs result in the perception that:

A) most crime is committed by minorities
B) crime is more common in low-crime areas
C) crime rates are higher than they actually are
D) all of the above

Question 10

Unethical practices by pharmaceutical companies contribute to more than _____deaths annually.

A) 5,000
B) 10,000
C) 50,000
D) 100,000

Question 11

The belief that the law is an unbiased regulator of right and wrong represents the _________view of society.

A) conflict
B) consensus
C) common
D) critical

Question 12

Which of the following types of media allows false news to be spread the farthest?

A) newspapers
B) social media
C) radio
D) television

Question 13

Myths are socially constructed phenomena.

Question 14

National news media portray crime more frequently than the local news media do.

Question 15

The media often reinforce the perception that minorities pose more of a threat to the white majority than actually exists.

Question 16

The criminal justice system is designed to fail for budgetary reasons, meaning that crime rates must be up for them to receive more money.

Question 17

Apathy is one of the ways Bohm says the general public contributes to the creation of crime myths.

Question 18

According to the text, most crime control policies created from myths (e.g., the war on drugs and three-strikes laws) are not effective forms of crime control.

Question 19

Seeking asylum at a legal port of entry is a crime.

Question 20

The characteristics of crime, criminals, and victims represented in the media are in many respects the opposite of the pattern suggested by official crime statistics.

Question 21

Research has shown that newspapers have a strong influence on fear of crime.

Question 22

According to the text, most news organizations take an objective approach to criminal justice issues.

Question 23

The number of border crossings significantly declined from the 1990s to the 2010s.