Deck 9: Early Intervention: Saving Children From a Life in Crime

Question 1

Which of the following is an example of cumulative disadvantage?

A) a kid who seems to always have bad luck but also has a social support system that continues to encourage her
B) a kid who gets in trouble while with peers but then receives an intervention and makes new friends who enjoy school and complete their assignments
C) a kid who is impulsive and has difficulty making friends so she is switched to a special classroom to better meet her needs
D) a kid who is rejected by their peers, fails at school, and has a poor home life

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following statements about the age-crime curve is true?

A) crime is low in childhood, peaks for youth around age 17 or 18, and then decreases as youths move into adulthood
B) as people age, crime consistently increases
C) criminal behavior peaks during childhood, then declines during teenage years, and increases again during adulthood
D) there is a sharp increase in crime activity during the teenage years and then there is a sharp decline after age 19

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Adolescence-limited offenders are characterized by:

A) engaging in juvenile or immature crimes throughout their life due to neuropsychological deficits
B) engaging in crime that targets adolescents so it decreases the likelihood of being caught
C) engaging in a lot of crime only during the teenage years
D) starting to engage in crime in the teenage years and then continuing throughout their life

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to Terrie Moffitt, certain kids suffer from neuropsychological deficits that:

A) are immutable and cannot change
B) can potentially be replenished or taken away through interventions
C) have assigned them to a life of crime
D) are solely formed based on the environment

Question 5

Which of the following examples is not a strong predictor of involvement in delinquency?

A) early antisocial behavior
B) misbehaving at school and home
C) misbehaving frequently
D) getting into intermittent fights with siblings

Question 6

Which of the following is an odd omission from longitudinal studies of early intervention?

A) they do not measure whether the sample members were included in the treatment or control group
B) they do not measure whether the sample members have family members that have broken the law
C) they do not measure whether the sample members have received a treatment intervention for their antisocial problems
D) they do not measure whether the sample members engaged in any form of antisocial behavior

Question 7

Findings from the first study of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS), which addressed the issues of whether youngsters (by age group) received help for their problem behavior, indicate:

A) a substantial proportion of delinquent youths did not receive adequate intervention
B) early onset youth who manifested a problem were more likely to receive help than older youths who manifested the problem
C) females were less likely to receive adequate intervention compared to males
D) caretakers who did seek help had plenty of resources to rely on for to implement an adequate intervention

Question 8

Which of the following statements about findings from the Denver Youth Survey (DYS), which comprised a sample of youngsters drawn from at-risk neighborhoods, is true?

A) parents sought help at the first sign of delinquency or psychological problems
B) parents tried to seek help for children with problems but the children generally refused to attend any intervention sessions
C) even when treatment was administered the delinquency and psychological problems of the children worsened
D) only a small percentage of parents sought help for their kids

Question 9

Early intervention programs that are successful generally follow which of the following perspectives?

A) social-ecological model
B) social learning theory
C) risk-need-responsivity paradigm
D) social bond theory

Question 10

The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), created by David Olds, was an intervention that intended to:

A) have nurses visit regularly to help improve the health of high-risk mothers' pregnancy, to teach them how to parent a newborn, and to help them to envision a positive future
B) have nurses visit high-risk mothers during their third trimester of pregnancy for a one month seminar on how to parent and raise a newborn
C) have nurses help mothers through their pregnancy and then remove the newborn if the mother and/or environment was high-risk
D) have nurses visit first-time mothers for the first six months to help with the day-to-day responsibilities of raising a newborn so they can have time to rest

Question 11

Which of the following statements regarding the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program is true?

A) they adhered to a punishment-oriented theory of corrections
B) parents were required to attend a monthly group meeting of parents that the staff facilitated
C) children at high risk for educational failure attended this program during one summer
D) the youngster's intellectual development was de-emphasized

Question 12

There is general agreement that the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program is:

A) a beneficial program for children but does not have any influence on later criminality
B) an admirable effort but the evidence does not support its effectiveness
C) a program where the costs outweigh the benefits so it is not feasible to implement
D) an effective intervention and that similar early enrichment programs have shown success

Question 13

Which of the following statements regarding Functional Family Therapy intervention is not true?

A) it is divided into five separate stages
B) the program can last anywhere between 1 to 5 years
C) it employs a cognitive-behavioral approach
D) it is an intervention that targets parental management

Question 14

The Functional Family Therapy intervention is based on the finding that:

A) crime is highly concentrated and tends to run in at-risk families
B) parents need to encourage all of their child's behavior so they do not get upset or engage in crime
C) kids enter the world as a blank slate and only engage in behaviors in which they are socialized
D) children who grow up in troubled families rarely engage in crime

Question 15

The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) is built on which two theories?

A) labeling theory and risk-need-responsivity model
B) social learning theory and risk-need-responsivity model
C) risk-need-responsivity model and social bond theory
D) social learning theory and social bond theory

Question 16

Which of the following is not a component of the social development model?

A) this perspective is placed within a developmental framework
B) children begin a developmental pathway as blank slates
C) youngsters are likely to leave childhood through a prosocial or antisocial developmental track
D) to remain on a prosocial pathway, youngsters had to find the experience rewarding

Question 17

Which of the following statements is not a way in which the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) worked to save kids?

A) parents who volunteered were given classes to increase their skills in behavior management
B) for the children, efforts were made to enhance their social and emotional skills
C) police were introduced into the classroom as a subtle reminder that if the children engaged in antisocial behavior they would be removed
D) teachers were trained in classroom management techniques

Question 18

Multisystemic Therapy is built on the notion that:

A) youths have individual traits and are also affected by various social systems
B) youths are only affected by their genetics or individual traits
C) youths require intensive psychotherapy to unravel what is wrong inside his or her mind
D) youths individual traits are not important but it is the social context around them that matters

Question 19

Which of the following statements about the Multisystemic Therapy Program is not true?

A) it is focused on addressing known causes of juvenile delinquency
B) clinicians have a small caseload to provide meaningful therapy to families
C) it was ineffective in reducing antisocial behavior of children
D) the program is cost effective

Question 20

Which of the following is not a central value of cost effective programs?

A) accountability
B) accessibility
C) commodification
D) rationality

Question 21

Describe what life-course criminology is and how it helps to explain criminal behavior. What are the underlying assumptions of this perspective?

Question 22

Describe adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent offenders. What are the similarities and differences between these two pathways and how do each relate to the age-crime curve?

Question 23

What is early intervention and provide three reasons, based on empirical research, why it would be beneficial in helping to reduce criminal behavior later in life. How is early intervention used?

Question 24

Describe five early intervention programs in one to two sentences each. What is the overall finding for each program's effectiveness?

Question 25

Provide two reasons why early intervention should be supported by policy makers and the public. Why are these two reasons persuasive in supporting the use of early intervention?