Question

Question 1) Which of the following are considered valid criticisms of the legalistic model of crime and criminology?

a. Law in action departs substantially from the ideal behavior of the law.

b. Focusing only on legally criminalized behavior makes it impossible to consider the impact of gender, race, age and ethnicity.

c. Legalistic definitions ignore acts that cause great harm.

d. The legalistic model suggests that these are absolute standards for judging right and wrong.

e. All of the above.

Question 2) Which paradigm for understanding crime focuses on labeling of persons?

a. positivistic

b. free will

c. critical

d. integration

e. interactionist

Question 3) Herrstein and Murry argue that:

a. labeling a person as “criminal” can lead to further criminal acts.

b. social strain can lead to psychological strain biological explanations of crime have no merit.

c. criminal offenders have a lower IQ then the rest of the population.

d. violence on T.V. is a leading cause of crime.

Question 4) Which paradigm focuses on questions about the nature and politics of defining criminal acts and on the role of power as it relates to crime?

a. Interactionist

b. Legalistic

c. New Criminology

d. Positivism

Question 5) Which of the following are examples of nonmaterial culture?

a. A song.

b. A transportation vehicle.

c. A TV set.

d. A law.

e. A value.

Question 6) In his view of crime, Durkeim does not discuss:

a. the individual’s consciousness and sense of dignity which are factors in whether or not a particular act is labeled criminal or as a simple moral fault.

b. biological causes of criminal behavior.

c. the increasing role of white collar crime.

d. the power of the police in improving clearance rates.

e. any of the above.

Question 7) One of the major problems in Durkeim’s approach, according to Moynihan, is that it:

a. uses Europe as a data base and not the United States.

b. stresses historical economic trends that stretch over centuries.

c. is too vague on key issues of social-class phenomena.

d. does not apply to American today where actions previously considered deviant are now normal.

e. relies to much on biological variables to explain shifts in crime rates.

Question 8) In arguing for the retention of the death penalty, van den Haag states that:

a. there is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty is a better deterrent than alternative punishments.

b. the death penalty is more feared than imprisonment.

c. the severity and finality of the death penalty is appropriate to the seriousness and the finality of murder.

d. He would favor the death penalty even if there was evidence that it deterred no prospective murderers.

e. all of the above

Question 9) Which of the following ideas is consistent with the conflict perspective on crime?

a. Crime is only those behaviors which are contrary to the interests of the state.

b. Criminal law is developed in response to the needs and interest of powerful groups.

c. Criminal law develops from the needs and values of everybody equally.

d. Crime serves to help establish the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

e. All of the above.

Question 10) The criminal justice system or process is most typically viewed as being composed of which three components?

a. defendants, victims, courts

b. victim, offender, state

c. offender, police, court

d. police, courts, corrections

e. victim, prosecutor, courts

Question 11) Which of the following are not criticism of self-report crime data?

a. Too far removed from the criminal act.

b. The over-use of adolescent populations.

c. The use of too-long time frames.

d. Methodological concerns such as sampling, reliability, memory decay and Interviewer measurement error.

e. All of the above.

Question 12) Strengths of the Uniform Crime Report System include which of the following?

a. It permits regional comparisons in crime rates.

b. Trends in crime over time can be examined.

c. It is based on actual police behavior and therefore is not subject to political manipulation.

d. It makes it easy to determine levels of white collar crime.

e. None of the above.

Question 13) Victimization studies:

a. were used by Durkheim in his study of suicide.

b. rely upon surveys in which people are asked to report any crimes which happened in their neighborhood.

c. were carried out before the Uniform Crime Reports began.

d. rely on people reporting on their own criminal activities.

e. None of the above.

Question 14) Which of the following countries has a higher crime rate than the United States?

a. Denmark

b. Japan

c. Canada

d. Germany

e. None of the above

Question 15) Jeffery Reiman in his article “A Crime by Any Other Name...” argues that:

a. street crime is more serious than white-collar crime.

b. the label “crime” is primarily reserved for the dangerous actions of the poor.

c. biological explanations of crime are politically conservative rather than liberal.

d. the use of drugs should not be considered a crime because there are no victims.

e. c and d above.

Question 16) Which school of thought provides us with the concept of deterrence?

a. preclassical

b. classical

c. positive

d. statistical

e. philosophical

Question 17) Which school of thought attributes criminality to supernatural causes?

a. classical

b. preclassical

c. neoclassical

d. positive

e. statistical

Question 18) Positivistic explanations of crime would focus on principles such as:

a. crime is a product of social forces beyond the complete control of offenders.

b. crime can be explained by utilizing the scientific method.

c. human nature is determined by biological and social constraints rather than being a matter of rational, individual choice.

d. the identification of factors that determine propensity to crime are crucial in explaining crime causality.

e. the belief that acts are defined as criminal or not criminal by those holding power in society.

f. a,b,c and d above

Question 19) Theories of female crime prior to 1960 focused upon:

a. societal explanations

b. economic causal factors

c. individual pathology

d. feminist theory

e. labeling

Question 20) Social structure theories:

a. are macrosociological in their design.

b. are designed to account for the higher rates of crime which the perspective assumes to prevail in the lower classes.

c. focus on white collar crimes.

d. reflects a belief in the rightness or correctness of the social system even though they point to structural faults and flaws which contribute to crimes.

e. focus on who determines what behavior is or is not considered criminal.

f. a,b and d above

Question 21) Strain theories:

a. assume that American society has universal success goals.

b. are macro-sociological theories.

c. are based on the work of Emile Durkheim.

d. assume that the structure of American society creates the greatest pressure to commit criminal acts among the lower classes.

e. All of the above.

Question 22 Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory:

a. is a type of social strain theory.

b. includes attachments, consensus, involvement and belief.

c. has not been empirically tested.

d. proposes that strong attachments lend to delinquency.

Question 23) Labeling theorists

a. reject the dualistic fallacy – the assumption that delinquents and non- delinquents are fundamentally different types of people.

b. are concerned with what causes delinquent behavior in the first place.

c. focus primarily on societal reactions to delinquent behavior.

d. generally accept a conflict view of the development of law in society.

e. distinguish secondary deviance as the process wherein deviance is incorporated into the self as an indication of personal reality and deviance behavior is used as a means of defense, attachment or adjustment.

f. a,c and e above.

Question 24) Conflict theorists maintain that:

a. society is composed of groups that have opposing values and interest.

b. the state represents the value and interests of the most powerful groups.

c. there is no consensus of values among societal members.

d.all members of society share common class interests.

e. laws exist in society because everyone benefits from their enforcement.

f. a,b and c above.

Question 25) Discuss the importance of crime statistics for criminologists. In your discussion, point to the advantages and disadvantages of the three major methods of gathering crime statistics and show how these methods provide different pictures about the nature of crime.

Question 26) Choose a type or form of criminal activity (e.g. drug dealing, burglary, embezzlement, prostitution, etc.) Show how criminologists adhering to the 1) social structural, 2) social process and 3) social reaction theories would approach and explain this particular form of criminal activity. Evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of each approach in analyzing this type of crime.

Answer 1

1. The correct answer is Option E. All of these are considered valid criticisms of the legalistic model of crime and criminology.

2. The correct answer is Option E. The interactionist paradigm for understanding crime focuses on labeling of persons.

3. The correct answer is Option C. Herrstein and Murray argue that criminal offenders have a lower IQ than the rest of the population.

4. The correct answer is Option D. Positivism  focuses on questions about the nature and politics of defining criminal acts and on the role of power as it relates to crime.

Please post the other questions separately as we are supposed to answer just one question or four sub parts of a question.