Deck 6: Deviance and Social Control

Question 1

Sociologically,an act cannot be classified as deviance if it does not cause physical or emotional harm to another individual.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Crime "in the suites" (white-collar crime)actually costs the American taxpayer more in terms of dollars lost than "crime in the streets."

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The text points out a number of high-profile examples of white-collar crime by large corporations for which violators never went to jail.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Functionalists believe deviance has no useful purpose in society and only contributes to social chaos.

Question 5

According to Thomas Szasz,the medicalization of deviance has led to more accurate understanding of the causes of deviance.

Question 6

Because deviance is inevitable,the more important focus is to find ways to protect people from harmful deviant acts,to find ways to tolerate behavior that is not harmful,and to develop a system of fair treatment for deviants.

Question 7

Labeling theory,differential association theory,and control theory all represent the conflict perspective.

Question 8

Based on strain theory,there are four deviant models of adaptation and one mode considered to be socially acceptable.

Question 9

Human sexuality illustrates how a group's definitions of an act,and not the act itself,determines whether or not it is considered deviant.

Question 10

Shaming is MOST effective as a sanction when it is used by a formal organization such as a court of common pleas or other public tribunal.

Question 11

Sociologist Erving Goffman (1963)used the term stigma to refer to characteristics that discredit people,including violations of norms of ability and violations of norms of appearance.

Question 12

Based on the research of Martín Sánchez-Jankowski,the reasons urban youth join gangs include recreation,leisure,and to protect the community.

Question 13

The theory of differential association suggests that people who associate with certain groups receive an "excess of definitions" about either deviance or conformity.

Question 14

Stripping an individual of his or her identity as a group member is an example of using a degradation ceremony to brand someone as an outsider.

Question 15

Functionalists would contend that the growing crime rates among women are the result of changing social classes and gender roles giving women greater access to illegitimate opportunities.

Question 16

Control theory relies on attachment,commitment,involvement,and belief to explain the social bonds people develop with their respective groups and society.

Question 17

The chances of receiving the death penalty are greatly affected by geography (where the murder took place),social class,and gender.

Question 18

By employing techniques of neutralization,even the most dedicated deviants can view themselves as conformists.

Question 19

Although African Americans are disproportionately represented in the state prison population,the majority of prisoners are white.

Question 20

Violent crime in America is rather consistent from state to state in terms of the number of incidents and ratio of incidents to the state's population.

Question 21

Sociologists who believe we help to produce our own orientations to life by joining specific groups is MOST aligned with which sociological perspective?

A)functional
B)conflict
C)symbolic interactionist
D)neo-conflict

Question 22

Napoleon Chagnon's visit to the Yanomamö tribe,where he observed tribe members appearing naked in public,using hallucinogenic drugs,and letting mucus hang from their noses,is a good example of ________.

A)nonconforming behavior
B)the need for social sanctions
C)the cultural relativity of deviance
D)the need for absolute standards in defining deviance

Question 23

A group's usual and customary social arrangements,on which its members depend and on which they base their lives,is called ________.

A)social control
B)sanction
C)social order
D)social guideline

Question 24

What is a group's formal and informal means of enforcing norms called?

A)social solidarity
B)the social imperative
C)social control
D)social bond

Question 25

Suicide bombers in Iraq are accorded high praise by those who oppose an American presence in the Middle East and are considered heroic warriors. Such honor and praise is an example of a ________.

A)positive sanction
B)negative sanction
C)degradation ceremony
D)shaming

Question 26

According to control theory,when are inner controls MOST effective in deterring deviant behavior?

A)When we fear punishment from authorities such as parents or the court system.
B)In the presence of strong attachments,commitments,and involvement with other members of society.
C)When they are applied to members of the middle or upper classes.
D)In situations where there is a strong police presence.

Question 27

Which of the following theories of deviance is LEAST associated with sociobiology?

A)intelligence theory: low intelligence leads to deviant and criminal behavior
B)social learning theory: we learn deviance from our peers
C)XYY" theory: the extra Y chromosome in males causes criminal behavior
D)body type theory: people with muscular bodies are prone to be criminals

Question 28

In which of the following settings would shaming be LEAST effective?

A)a family
B)a close knit society,such as the Amish
C)a small religious cult
D)a large inner-city neighborhood

Question 29

The significance of names or reputations given to people when they engage in certain types of behavior is the focus of ________ theory.

A)strain
B)control
C)labeling
D)differential association

Question 30

Based on differential association theory,what is the MOST likely background shared by juvenile delinquents?

A)They come from regions populated by large numbers of minorities.
B)They are concentrated in urban areas with a population over 25,000.
C)They are common in families living in poverty.
D)They are from families that have a history of being involved in crime.

Question 31

Erving Goffman used the term ________ to refer to characteristics that discredit people.

A)master status
B)role
C)stigma
D)sanction

Question 32

Differential association theory was developed by sociologist ________.

A)Robert K. Merton
B)Frank Tannenbaum
C)Walter Reckless
D)Edwin Sutherland

Question 33

The sociologist responsible for developing one of the first control theories that addressed the inner controls of the individual and outer controls of society was ________.

A)Travis Hirschi
B)Jackson Toby
C)Walter Reckless
D)F) Ivan Nye

Question 34

Violations of norms and rules that are written into law are officially called ________.

A)ethics
B)values
C)folkways
D)crimes

Question 35

Why did the "XYY" chromosome theory fall out of favor as an explanation for criminal behavior?

A)It was discovered there are no longer any XYY chromosome configurations among men.
B)Research did not support the theory.
C)The work of the theorist who proposed the theory was plagiarized.
D)The theory only explains deviant and criminal behavior among females.

Question 36

The relativity of deviance is MOST aligned with which sociological perspective?

A)structural functionalism
B)symbolic interactionism
C)the conflict perspective
D)the neo-conflict perspective

Question 37

The concept of the relativity of deviance is BEST illustrated by which of the following statements?

A)It is not the act itself,but the reaction of others to the act that makes it deviant.
B)The nature of one's behavior is the most important aspect in determining deviance.
C)Deviance is most related to functionalism because it creates a dysfunction for society.
D)Deviance is analogous to mental illness.

Question 38

The theory of behavior in which people who associate with some groups learn an "excess of definitions" of deviance,increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant is ________.

A)conflict theory
B)social control theory
C)strain theory
D)differential association theory

Question 39

Inner and outer controls that work against our tendencies to deviate is known as what theory?

A)rationalization theory
B)judgment theory
C)self-control theory
D)control theory

Question 40

The two disciplines that would be MOST concerned with addressing qualities within the individual to explain deviant behavior are ________ and ________.

A)anthropology; sociology
B)sociology,psychology
C)sociobiology; psychology
D)criminology; political science

Question 41

The term degradation ceremony was coined by sociologist ________.

A)Harold Garfinkel
B)Erving Goffman
C)Talcott Parsons
D)Herbert Spencer

Question 42

Cloward and Ohlin addressed the street hustler as a role model for youth and the methods used to earn easy money through a life of crime. What did they call this career path of delinquency?

A)containment theory
B)social bond theory
C)the theory of differential association
D)illegitimate opportunity structure

Question 43

The early sociologist who argued that deviance might be functional for society was ________.

A)Max Weber
B)Henri Saint Simon
C)Emile Durkheim
D)Karl Marx

Question 44

John desires the best things in life-a fast car,designer clothes,and membership in exclusive clubs. But rather than work his way through the system,he has discovered he can have all these things by selling crack cocaine in the inner city. How would Merton classify John?

A)a ritualist
B)a conformist
C)a rebel
D)an innovator

Question 45

Ritualistic procedures intended to humiliate norm violators and mark them as being moral outcasts of the group to which they once belonged are called ________.

A)sanctions
B)profiling
C)degradation ceremonies
D)stereotyping

Question 46

According to strain theory,the underlying cause of deviance is that people experience a sense of normlessness. This sense of normlessness is referred to as ________.

A)anomie
B)latent dysfunction
C)mass hysteria
D)retreatism

Question 47

Based on the 2011 edition of the Statistical Abstract in the United States,the state with the lowest rate of violent crime in America is ________,while the state with the highest rate of violent crime is ________.

A)Wyoming; New York
B)Montana; New Jersey
C)Colorado; California
D)Maine; Nevada

Question 48

In The Scarlet Letter,why was Hester Prynne required to wear a scarlet "A" on her dress?

A)Sociologically,this served as a negative sanction and an example of shaming.
B)Psychologically,it provided her the opportunity to face what she had become.
C)It indicated she was at the head of her class in what she had done.
D)It was a "badge of honor" that many other women wished they could achieve.

Question 49

According to Cloward and Ohlin,what is the underlying cause of deviance and delinquency in unstable slums of a city?

A)illegitimate opportunity structures
B)the racial composition of the city
C)a rival struggle for power
D)unethical police behavior

Question 50

All of the following acts qualify as white-collar crime EXCEPT ________.

A)a bank teller robbing the First National bank
B)bribing a police officer to refrain from writing a speeding ticket
C)an executive writing off the corporation's million-dollar fine as investment capital
D)a businessperson classifying parking tickets as job hunting expenses on an income tax return

Question 51

Based on Merton's typologies,what do drug addicts,the homeless,nuns living in a convent,and monks living in a monastery have in common?

A)They all conformists.
B)They are all retreatists.
C)They are all rebels.
D)They are all ritualists.

Question 52

The term white-collar crime was coined by sociologist ________ to refer to crimes that people of respectable social status commit in the course of their occupation.

A)Robert Merton
B)Frank Tannenbaum
C)Erving Goffman
D)Edwin Sutherland

Question 53

The ________ theory developed by Robert Merton is based on the idea that most people want to attain cultural goals,but not everyone has the legitimate means of achieving them.

A)illegitimate opportunity
B)strain
C)labeling
D)control

Question 54

In an effort to resist the label of "deviant," most people will develop rationales to justify their deviant acts. Sykes and Matza refer to these rationales as ________.

A)ideologies
B)techniques of neutralization
C)strategies of justification
D)labeling

Question 55

All of the following theories follow the principles of symbolic interactionism EXCEPT for which one?

A)differential association theory
B)control theory
C)labeling theory
D)strain theory

Question 56

How would conflict theorists classify migrant workers,seasonal employees,and members of the workforce who are subject to layoffs?

A)bourgeoisie
B)proletariat
C)petty bourgeoisie
D)working poor

Question 57

The crime with the highest increase among women between 1992 and 2009 was ________.

A)drug offenses
B)stolen property
C)bank robbery
D)murder

Question 58

Sociologists who view law as an instrument of oppression used to control workers are aligned most with which sociological perspective?

A)the functionalist perspective
B)the conflict perspective
C)the symbolic interactionist perspective
D)the structuralist perspective

Question 59

When Anthony worked as a prison counselor,he would often ask property offenders why they committed the crime. The overwhelming response was,"I had to feed my family." How would Sykes and Matza classify this response?

A)denial of responsibility
B)appeal to higher loyalties
C)condemnation of the condemners
D)denial of injury

Question 60

Matthew and Ryan are devout Christian Fundamentalists and believe that homosexuality is against God's will and that homosexuals deserve to be punished. They spend a couple of evenings each week in gay bashing activities that include physical violence and verbal assaults. Based on their rationalization,which technique of neutralization is MOST applicable for Matthew and Ryan to maintain positive self-images?

A)denial of a victim
B)denial of injury
C)denial of responsibility
D)condemn the condemner

Question 61

Based on the research of Martín Sánchez-Jankowski,what are the primary reasons urban male youth join gangs?

Question 62

In control theory,what is the difference between inner and outer controls?

Question 63

What are the two MOST significant "anchors" that insulate a person from a life of crime and imprisonment?

A)a good lawyer and big expense account
B)neighborhood and income
C)race and ethnicity
D)marriage and education

Question 64

Why is conformity considered the only nondeviant mode of adaptation?

Question 65

A serial killer has recently been convicted of the charges brought against him. In which state is he MOST likely to receive the death penalty?

A)New York
B)Michigan
C)Texas
D)North Dakota

Question 66

What is the relationship between norms and social order?

Question 67

How a society treats its deviants is one measure of how humane it is. What would an examination of prisons and mental hospitals in the United States suggest regarding this standard?

A)The United States is the most humane society in the world.
B)Prisons are a last resort in dealing with deviants.
C)U)S. prisons emphasize prisoner rehabilitation and mental hospitals cure the mentally ill.
D)They are both used as warehouse for the unwanted.

Question 68

What is the MOST common martial status found among inmates in U.S. state prisons?

A)married
B)divorced
C)widowed
D)never married

Question 69

Why does illegitimate opportunity structure qualify so well as an explanation of deviance in the urban slums?

Question 70

Why is the relativity of deviance MOST aligned with the symbolic interactionist perspective?

Question 71

Based on control theory,what are the four qualities that determine one's bond with society?

Question 72

What is the relativity of deviance?

Question 73

The percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested is known as ___________.

A)reimprisonment
B)recidivism
C)three-strike law
D)criminal justice

Question 74

Of the following,the crime with the highest recidivism rate within three years of release from prison is ________.

A)murder
B)rape
C)drug violations
D)car theft

Question 75

Because of ________,deviance is often seen as mental sickness rather than problematic behavior.

A)capital punishment
B)reactions to deviance
C)the symbolic interactionist approach
D)the medicalization of deviance

Question 76

What was the single greatest difference that explains why members of their community perceived the "Roughnecks" and "Saints" differently?

Question 77

According to Merton's strain theory,what are the four typologies of adaptation that qualify as being deviant?

Question 78

How did psychiatrist Thomas Szasz describe mental illness?

A)He believed mental illness and homelessness were two sides of the same coin.
B)He said mental illness was neither mental nor an illness.
C)He embraced Freudian psychology as being the best explanation for mental illness.
D)He believed mental illness was the cause of most deviance,delinquency,and crime.

Question 79

What is the purpose of a degradation ceremony?

Question 80

What is the major difference between psychological and sociological theories in explaining deviance?