Deck 6: Crime Punishment

Question 1

Between 1880 and 1930, how many black men were tortured and killed by lynch mobs who received no punishment for doing so?

A) over 50
B) over 130
C) over 650
D) over 1,350
E) over 2,300

Answer 1

over 2,300

Question 2

Most black men were killed not because of rape but for which of the following reasons?

A) refused to take their hat off in front of a white woman
B) black man winked at a white woman
C) black men laughed at white woman behind her back
D) black man was found to be acting too "uppity"
E) all of these

Answer 2

all of these

Question 3

Which of the following laws transformed poor people into criminals after the Civil War?

A) three-strikes laws
B) vagabond laws
C) workers quota law
D) convict leasing law
E) none of these

Answer 3

vagabond laws

Question 4

Which of the following people grew rich off of convict labor after the Civil War?

A) state treasuries
B) prisoners
C) former slaves
D) black sharecroppers
E) white lower-class workers

Question 5

Between 1925 and 1975, what was the average U.S. prison population?

A) between 25,000 and 50,000
B) between 50,000 and 75,000
C) between 75,000 and 100,000
D) between 100,000 and 200,000
E) between 200,000 and 275,000

Question 6

In what year did the U.S. prison population begin to increase, resulting in what we now term "the prison boom"?

A) 1975
B) 1979
C) 1985
D) 1989
E) 1995

Question 7

How large had the U.S. prison population reached as of the year 2000?

A) 350,000
B) 500,000
C) 750,000
D) 900,000
E) 1,400,000

Question 8

Between 1970 and 2003, the number of state and federal prisons:

A) doubled.
B) tripled.
C) quadrupled.
D) increased sevenfold.
E) none of these

Question 9

Which U.S. state houses more inmates than France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the Netherlands combined?

A) Texas
B) New York
C) Alabama
D) California
E) Colorado

Question 10

By what percentage did the number of women behind bars in the United States increase between 1977 and 2004?

A) 25%
B) 50%
C) 125%
D) 350%
E) 750%

Question 11

Black men are how many more times likely to be in prison than white men?

A) twice as likely
B) three times more likely
C) five times more likely
D) eight times more likely
E) ten times more likely

Question 12

A black man born after World War Two who later dropped out of high school had a 17% chance of serving time in prison; what was the percentage for a black man born after the Civil Rights Movement?

A) 10%
B) 15%
C) 35%
D) 48%
E) 60%

Question 13

Which of the following laws doubled the sentence for the second offense and mandated life in prison for the third - even for nonviolent crimes?

A) three-strikes laws
B) vagabond laws
C) workers quota law
D) convict leasing law
E) none of these

Question 14

Which Republican candidate's campaign for President planted the seeds for the party to latch onto an issue previously unknown to the United States - a "crime problem"?

A) Richard Nixon
B) Dwight D. Eisenhower
C) Barry Goldwater
D) John Ashcroft
E) Ronald Reagan

Question 15

Conceptualizing two paired opposites as both connected and the only possible solutions are an example of a:

A) cerebral structural disadvantage.
B) bipolar discursive frame.
C) neo-liberal paradox.
D) logical disparity argument.
E) none of these

Question 16

How many states rely on for-profit prisons to hold around 90,000 inmates each year?

A) about ten percent
B) one-quarter
C) over-half
D) three-fourths
E) all states

Question 17

Eric Schlosser's "prison-industrial complex"is inspired by which sociologist's study of the military-industrial complex?

A) Robert Merton
B) Michel Foucault
C) Wright Mills
D) Herbert Blumer
E) Jurgen Habermas

Question 18

Which set of policies most helped to feed the prison-industrial complex, bring about the prison boom, and wreak devastation on African American communities?

A) the war on drugs
B) civil rights legislation
C) NAFTA
D) gun control act
E) none of these

Question 19

In the 1990s, the murder rate fell by 20%, but the murder airings on network newscasts increased by what percentage?

A) 30%
B) 60%
C) 85%
D) 175%
E) 600%

Question 20

Why has the fear of being victimized by nonwhite men continued to receive a great deal of attention?

A) it offends the fundamental value of our society
B) it facilitates the cessation of stigmatization of marginalized groups
C) it facilitates the continued inclusion of marginalized groups
D) crime statistics support the fear
E) stats prove most white women are brutalized by nonwhite men

Question 21

Studies show that while holding constant other important measures, whites' prejudice has been linked to their support for which of the following?

A) the death penalty
B) excessive force by police
C) longer prison sentences
D) warrant-less searches of young men of color
E) all of these

Question 22

Law professor Jody Armour points out which one of the following a nonblack person who harms a young black man and claims self-defense can marshal in court?

A) his actions were reasonable because most Americans fear young black men
B) self-defense because white men commit more crime than anyone else
C) inherent fear of violence triggered by a prior assault by a white man
D) media shows similar images daily and so this behavior is expected
E) temporary insanity because harming a black man is considered taboo

Question 23

Your textbook chapter on the legal field shows "getting tough on crime"has been most effective.

Question 24

The legal field is detached from society and above society's prejudices; that is why "justice is blind."

Question 25

Lynch mobs operated in opposition to local sheriff's departments' attempts to protect their captives.

Question 26

The vast majority of black men accused of raping white women were guilty.

Question 27

The southern white man's definition of "rape"as it applied to black men hardly could have been broader as interpreted.

Question 28

Lynch mobs upheld white supremacy by letting blacks know they could not find refuge in the law.

Question 29

Lynch mobs upheld white patriarchy as white women were told to fear black men and remain dependent upon white male protectors.

Question 30

Prisons were used to re-enslave thousands of black workers recently released from bondage.

Question 31

Lynching and racialized terrorism died down and convict labor curtailed due to protests by unions because they could not compete with prisoners' cheap labor.

Question 32

During the 1970s, prisons were criticized as being expensive, unhelpful, and racist institutions; yet the prison population grew rapidly.

Question 33

The United States was the only country to experience a large prison boom among other industrialized countries.

Question 34

The brunt of the prison boom has been borne by the poor and undereducated black and Hispanic men in the United States.

Question 35

The prison cell has become just as familiar to poor young black men as the college campus, military base, or factory floor.

Question 36

Most people incarcerated during the prison boom were violent offenders.

Question 37

Most of the prison boom can be explained by the rising crime rates.

Question 38

Studies show that drug use and black men using and selling drugs increased between 1965 and 2001.

Question 39

Researchers have shown blacks are rushed to emergency rooms for drug-related problems two to three times more than whites.

Question 40

"Law and order"entrepreneurs have turned the prison industry into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Question 41

Republicans, after the Civil Rights Movement, mentioned "violence in the streets"which referred not to muggings and assaults but was coded language for disobedience tactics of civil rights activists.

Question 42

Police officers began arresting potential rioters after the Civil Rights Movement - in other words, young black men.

Question 43

Your textbook shows that studies prove our fear of crime closely equals the level of crime occurring in U.S. society.

Question 44

According to a national survey, 35% of Americans feel that current sentencing guidelines do not deal "harshly enough with criminals."

Question 45

Using data provided by this chapter, explain Foucault's quote: "we must first rid ourselves of the illusion that penalty is above all (if not exclusively) a means of reducing crime…We must analyze ratherthe 'concrete systems of punishment,' study them as social phenomena that cannot be accounted for by the juridical structure of society alone, nor by its fundamental ethical choices"as it applies to the U.S. system of law.

Question 46

Define Richard Wright's quote "…his very existence is a crime against the state."Support this definition with examples provided in your textbook.

Question 47

Now that you have read the data contained in the first six chapters of your textbook, write your reactions to the immigration raid mentioned in this chapter which occurred in Phoenix, AZ. Discuss specifically the situation of looking for undocumented immigrants working as janitors.

Question 48

Discuss the intersection of the underground economy and U.S. ghettos. What are the pros and cons for individual ghetto dwellers involving themselves in this economy? If you or your friends have personal experience in this situation, draw upon them in your answer, making sure to touch upon the connection between individual choice, race, economics, and data presented in this chapter.

Question 49

Provide your own opinion, supported by information presented in your chapter to this question posed by your authors: Is corporate oversight that results in deadly consequences that much different than first-degree murder? Be sure to include the way race plays into the different levels of employment and profit for these companies.

Question 50

Discuss the dangers faced by immigrant women in the United States as presented in your chapter. Be sure to include the ways isolation plays into these dangers. Include personal experiences from friends or your own family about how real immigrant women in real daily life navigate the dangers of their situation.

Question 51

Discuss the way race plays into a journalists' following quip "some people go to traffic court with better prepared lawyers than many murder defendants get."Include in your answer potential solutions which could be implemented into the justice system to end this situation.

Question 52

Explain the Jena 6 case based on both information provided in your chapter and what you've learned from various news coverage. Juxtapose this case with another where most of the defendants were white. In what ways were the cases treated differently both by the courts and the media. If you choose a local case from your hometown, be sure to adequately explain the details of the case before beginning the comparison.

Question 53

Write a short opinion piece regarding the intersection of the three-strikes laws and various "war on drugs"legislation. Use concrete statistics provided in your chapter to discuss how these pieces of legislation deal with race and offenders. At the end of the piece, provide either solutions for changing the laws or an argument for why they should remain.

Question 54

Discuss how the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) sentiment concerning prison construction plays into the prison boom discussed in your chapter. Be sure to place yourself in the role of resident who can vote on whether she wants a prison built in her town. How does the prisons' track record as a crime deterrent work in this scenario? How does race play into potential places for prisons to be built?