Deck 5: Social Interactionist Theories of Delinquency

Question 1

What is the basic theoretical premise of labeling theory?

A) Criminals are inherently evil.
B) The social structure of society is unequal.
C) Individuals will violate laws regardless of prohibitions.
D) Society creates deviants.

Answer 1

Society creates deviants.

Question 2

The ________ theory assumes society creates deviance by negatively identifying and naming those who are apprehended as different from others, and any subsequent interactions are influenced by the meaning and perception derived from the identify.

A) heredity
B) labeling
C) conflict
D) economic

Answer 2

labeling

Question 3

What term did Edwin Lemert use to refer to society's response to deviant behavior?

A) secondary deviation
B) criminal deviation
C) primary deviation
D) social deviation

Answer 3

secondary deviation

Question 4

Robert Sampson and John Laub claim that labeling is one factor leading to ________, which increases the likelihood of a person's involvement in criminal acts during adulthood.

A) cumulative disadvantage
B) subjective tags
C) formal roles
D) primary deviation

Question 5

What did Lemert say would force a change in an individual's status or role?

A) rationalization
B) social reactions
C) neutralization
D) systematic rewards

Question 6

Ruth Ann Triplett and G. Roger Jarjoura referred to reactions by official agents of the justice system to illegal behaviors as ________.

A) informal labels
B) subjective tags
C) objective tags
D) formal labels

Question 7

Which of the following theoretical propositions uses reciprocal role taking as part of its theoretical construction?

A) social structural
B) conflict
C) psychological
D) symbolic interactionist

Question 8

The central medium through which symbolic interaction occurs is ________.

A) race
B) education
C) language
D) financial advantage

Question 9

Which of the following accurately describes the unit of analysis for symbolic interactionists?

A) the transaction that takes place in interaction between two or more individuals
B) the initial act of deviance that causes a person to be labeled a deviant
C) the process of acquiring a delinquent identity that takes place in a number of steps
D) the give-and-take that continuously occurs between social groups and between individuals and society

Question 10

Which theory sees the social order as a dynamic process that is the ever-evolving product of an ongoing system of social interaction and communication?

A) theory of differential oppression
B) symbolic interactionist theory
C) labeling theory
D) differential social control theory

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT a strength of the symbolic interactionist theory of delinquency?

A) It builds on the differential social control theory.
B) It builds on and adds to the insights of labeling theory.
C) It is insightful regarding how both law-abiding and delinquent youths form their conceptions of themselves.
D) It contributes helpful insights about the influence of delinquent peers and the group context on youths? self-appraisals.

Question 12

Who views laws as tools created by the powerful for their own benefit?

A) functionalists
B) anthropologists
C) symbolic interactionists
D) conflict theorists

Question 13

Marxists contend that extreme poverty and economic disenfranchisement caused by a capitalist system cause ________ crime.

A) elite
B) corporate
C) public order
D) conventional

Question 14

What is Ralf Dahrendorf especially critical of?

A) conflict model
B) mediation
C) functionalism
D) peacemaking

Question 15

What variable did Karl Marx suggest was the cause of crime?

A) racial bias
B) culture
C) class struggle
D) poverty

Question 16

What concepts did Max Weber add to Marx's theory to explain social stratification?

A) economy and restraint
B) power and prestige
C) status and wealth
D) disorganization and culture

Question 17

John Hagan suggested that a relationship between power and control would explain why ________.

A) fathers tend to control boys more than girls
B) mothers tend to be more dominant than fathers
C) boys commit less delinquency than girls
D) girls commit less delinquency than boys

Question 18

What did Robert Regoli and John Hewitt suggest as a cause of delinquency in the United States?

A) peer power
B) oppression of children
C) broken homes
D) inadequate wealth

Question 19

The view that delinquency or crime arises because individuals are members of a subculture with conduct norms that are in conflict with the wider society is called ________.

A) culture conflict theory
B) economic oppression theory
C) bourgeois culture theory
D) poverty theory

Question 20

The idea that authority is unjustly used against children is called the ________.

A) power-control thesis
B) theory of differential oppression
C) poverty oppression expression
D) Marxist perspective

Question 21

Which one of the following restorative-justice programs enables in-kind or actual return of what has been lost?

A) restitution programs
B) family group conferences
C) victim-offender conferencing
D) community conferencing and peacemaking

Question 22

Community conferences make it possible for ________ to meet one another to resolve issues raised by an offender's trespass.

A) victims
B) youths
C) community members
D) All of the above

Question 23

Nancy Rodriguez used official juvenile court data from an urban area and found that youths who participated in a restorative justice program were less likely to ________ than juveniles in a comparison group.

A) recidivate
B) desist
C) deviate
D) abstain

Question 24

________ appears to be one of the most hopeful approaches to juvenile crime, especially with minor forms of juvenile delinquency.

A) Incarceration
B) Restorative justice
C) The death penalty
D) Social injustice

Question 25

According to conflict-oriented criminologists, ________ takes the form of unfairness in the juvenile justice system. It arises from poor youths being disproportionately represented, from female status offenders being subjected to sexist treatment, and from racial minorities being dealt with more harshly than whites.

A) incarceration
B) restorative justice
C) the death penalty
D) social injustice

Question 26

Frank Tannenbaum proposed that the less evil is dramatized, the more likely youths are to become involved in deviant careers.

Question 27

A criticism of labeling theory is that it implies that labeling always increases the likelihood of subsequent rule breaking.

Question 28

The term "leave those kids alone"is best associated with the concept of radical nonintervention.

Question 29

Symbolic interactionists define the unit of analysis as the transaction that takes place in interaction between two or more individuals.

Question 30

From the interactionist perspective, racial and gender inequalities are inconsequential for law violation.

Question 31

Conflict theorists focus on the importance of socioeconomic class, power and authority relationships, and group and cultural conflict.

Question 32

Marx wrote extensively on crime, which led to the formation of conflict theory.

Question 33

Marxists view the state and the law as the ultimate tools of the ownership class.

Question 34

Weber did not believe that a unidimensional approach could explain social stratification.

Question 35

Austin Turk theorized that social order of society is based on the relationships of cooperation and mutual respect between authorities and subjects.

Question 36

Hagan contends that the relationship between gender and nonserious delinquency is linked to power and control.

Question 37

An economic system in which private individuals or corporations own and control capital and in which competitive free markets control prices, production, and distribution of goods is called socialism.

Question 38

Advocates of restorative justice argue that legal standards are sufficient to create healthy, ethical community behavior.

Question 39

Restorative justice processes assume value in every human being and therefore present individuals to one another in a respectful way, which draws out human dignity in everyone.

Question 40

The development of empathy requires regular feedback about how our actions affect others, relationships in which we feel valued and our worth is validated, and the experience of sympathy from others when we are in pain.

Question 41

Tannenbaum referred to the process of labeling as the of ________ evil.

Question 42

According to Lemert, the individual's initial act of deviance is the ________ deviation.

Question 43

According to labeling theory, "________ deviation"refers to the initial act of deviance that causes a person to be labeled a deviant.

Question 44

According to labeling theory, deviance that is a consequence of societal reaction to an initial delinquent act is called ________ deviation.

Question 45

The symbolic interaction theory of delinquency proposes to explain delinquent behavior in terms of self-development mediated by ________.

Question 46

________ argued that structural conflict gives rise to gender and race differences in motivations to break the law.

Question 47

The development of the conflict model is indebted to the concept of ʺ________,ʺ the art of conducting a dispute by disclosing and resolving contradictions in the arguments of opponents.

Question 48

Marx contended that ________ causes the splitting up of society into two great classes.

Question 49

Regoli and Hewitt's theory of differential oppression is based on the assumption that authority is unjustly used against ________.

Question 50

The view that the relationship between ________ and delinquency is linked to issues of power and control is called the power-control thesis.

Question 51

The rules of a group governing the way its members should act under particular conditions are called ________ norms.

Question 52

Nancy Rodriguez found that youths who participated in a restorative justice program were less likely to ________ than juveniles in a comparison group.

Question 53

Please match each theory with its definition.

-Social interactionist theory

A) A perspective in social psychology that analyzes the process of interaction among human beings at the symbolic level and that has influenced the development of several social process theories of delinquent behavior.
B) A perspective that holds that delinquency can be explained by socioeconomic class, by power and authority relationships, and by group and cultural differences.
C) A perspective that delinquency or crime arises because individuals are members of a subculture that has conduct norms that are in conflict with those of the wider society.
D) A theoretical perspective that derives its explanatory power from the give-and-take that continuously occurs between social groups and between individuals and society.

Question 54

Please match each theory with its definition.

-Symbolic interactionist theory

A) A perspective in social psychology that analyzes the process of interaction among human beings at the symbolic level and that has influenced the development of several social process theories of delinquent behavior.
B) A perspective that holds that delinquency can be explained by socioeconomic class, by power and authority relationships, and by group and cultural differences.
C) A perspective that delinquency or crime arises because individuals are members of a subculture that has conduct norms that are in conflict with those of the wider society.
D) A theoretical perspective that derives its explanatory power from the give-and-take that continuously occurs between social groups and between individuals and society.

Question 55

Please match each theory with its definition.

-Conflict theory

A) A perspective in social psychology that analyzes the process of interaction among human beings at the symbolic level and that has influenced the development of several social process theories of delinquent behavior.
B) A perspective that holds that delinquency can be explained by socioeconomic class, by power and authority relationships, and by group and cultural differences.
C) A perspective that delinquency or crime arises because individuals are members of a subculture that has conduct norms that are in conflict with those of the wider society.
D) A theoretical perspective that derives its explanatory power from the give-and-take that continuously occurs between social groups and between individuals and society.

Question 56

Please match each theory with its definition.

-Culture conflict theory

A) A perspective in social psychology that analyzes the process of interaction among human beings at the symbolic level and that has influenced the development of several social process theories of delinquent behavior.
B) A perspective that holds that delinquency can be explained by socioeconomic class, by power and authority relationships, and by group and cultural differences.
C) A perspective that delinquency or crime arises because individuals are members of a subculture that has conduct norms that are in conflict with those of the wider society.
D) A theoretical perspective that derives its explanatory power from the give-and-take that continuously occurs between social groups and between individuals and society.

Question 57

Please match each term or concept with its definition.

-Radical nonintervention

A) A policy toward delinquents that advises that authorities should "leave the kids alone whenever possible."
B) An economic system in which private individuals or corporations own and control capital (wealth and the means of production) and in which competitive free markets control prices, production, and distribution of goods.
C) The rules of a group governing the ways its members should act under particular conditions, and the violation of these rules arouses a group reaction.
D) According to conflict-oriented criminologists, social injustice takes the form of unfairness in the juvenile justice system. It arises from poor youths being disproportionately represented, from female status offenders being subjected to sexist treatment, and from racial minorities being dealt with more harshly than whites.

Question 58

Please match each term or concept with its definition.

-Conduct norms

A) A policy toward delinquents that advises that authorities should "leave the kids alone whenever possible."
B) An economic system in which private individuals or corporations own and control capital (wealth and the means of production) and in which competitive free markets control prices, production, and distribution of goods.
C) The rules of a group governing the ways its members should act under particular conditions, and the violation of these rules arouses a group reaction.
D) According to conflict-oriented criminologists, social injustice takes the form of unfairness in the juvenile justice system. It arises from poor youths being disproportionately represented, from female status offenders being subjected to sexist treatment, and from racial minorities being dealt with more harshly than whites.

Question 59

Please match each term or concept with its definition.

-Social injustice

A) A policy toward delinquents that advises that authorities should "leave the kids alone whenever possible."
B) An economic system in which private individuals or corporations own and control capital (wealth and the means of production) and in which competitive free markets control prices, production, and distribution of goods.
C) The rules of a group governing the ways its members should act under particular conditions, and the violation of these rules arouses a group reaction.
D) According to conflict-oriented criminologists, social injustice takes the form of unfairness in the juvenile justice system. It arises from poor youths being disproportionately represented, from female status offenders being subjected to sexist treatment, and from racial minorities being dealt with more harshly than whites.

Question 60

Please match each term or concept with its definition.

-Capitalism

A) A policy toward delinquents that advises that authorities should "leave the kids alone whenever possible."
B) An economic system in which private individuals or corporations own and control capital (wealth and the means of production) and in which competitive free markets control prices, production, and distribution of goods.
C) The rules of a group governing the ways its members should act under particular conditions, and the violation of these rules arouses a group reaction.
D) According to conflict-oriented criminologists, social injustice takes the form of unfairness in the juvenile justice system. It arises from poor youths being disproportionately represented, from female status offenders being subjected to sexist treatment, and from racial minorities being dealt with more harshly than whites.

Question 61

Discuss the process of labeling theory as it relates to delinquency. Be sure to include the sequence stages of interaction as defined by Lemert.

Question 62

Identify the various criticisms of labeling theory, and explain why it experienced a resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s.

Question 63

Explain symbolic interactionist theory and include Matsueda's four features of the self and delinquent behavior.

Question 64

What are the strengths of the symbolic interactionist theory of delinquency?

Question 65

What are the three basic groups of conflict criminologists? Describe the differences between these groups.

Question 66

What are the four principles around which the theory of differential oppression is organized?

Question 67

How does symbolic interactionist theory build on labeling theory? Please explain.

Question 68

To what do conflict criminologists relate delinquency? Please explain why.

Question 69

What does the term "social injustice"mean? Please provide some examples, either generally or specifically. What can be done about the injustices?