SOC Chapter 7

Which statement best describes conflict theorists' views on lawmaking?

Lawmaking is an attempt by people in power to force their norms and values on others

rue or false: Many people dispute the idea that behaviors such as excessive drinking and compulsive gambling are victimless crimes

True

According to ________ theorists, socialization develops our self-control so well that we do not need further pressure to obey social norms.

Control

In which ways can organized crime infiltrate a society?

It gains influence over labor unions; It protects merchants in exchange for a so-called "tax."; It can take over legitimate business

Functionalists note that deviance creates both ______ and ______ consequences for social stability.

Positive; negative

According to most functionalists, what is deviance?

A common part of human existence that helps define limits of proper behavior

Which situations are examples of differential association?

A teenager whose friends skip school and commit petty crimes begins to do the same; An athlete takes performance-enhancing drugs after hearing her teammates talk about using them.

Which situations are examples of conformity?

A woman moves to a new town and starts using local slang; A man gets a stylish new haircut after he sees several of his friends with a similar style.

Which of the following statements about crime in the United States is true?

Both violent crime and property crime have dropped dramatically since the 1990s.

Which of the following is considered a white-collar crime?

Bribery

Feminist criminologists contend that

Certain laws protect the rights of men above the rights of women

Sociologists see laws as

Changing standards of right and wrong which define violation and prescribe sanctions.

Recruits who enter military service typically ______ to the habits and language of other recruits and ______ the orders of superior officers.

Conform; obey

Formal social control is used to discourage violations of social norms and to encourage which behaviors?

Conformity; obedience

Which school of thought emphasizes that one learns criminal behavior by interacting with others?

Cultural transmission

Which of the following is a new type of white-collar crime that emerged around the beginning of the twenty-first century?

Cybercrime

True or false: According to sociologists, deviant behavior occurs because of genetic disposition.

False

True or false: The United States has a higher rate of car theft than Australia, England, Italy, and New Zealand.

False

Even though physical and behavioral characteristics stigmatize people, oftentimes high technology crimes do not. Which of the following are socially tolerated forms of deviance?

File sharing music; Copying software to a computer without a license; Pirating DVDs and motion pictures

Obedience can best be defined as

Following the commands of a perceived authority.

When a school principal suspends a student, the principal is using or applying

Formal social control

The social psychologist Stanley Milgram used the term conformity to mean

Going along with peers who have no authority to control our behavior.

The term law may be defined as

Government social control

When an offender is motivated to choose a victim based on race, religion, ethnic group, national origin, or sexual orientation, this is considered by the government to be a _______ crime.

Hate

What did Émile Durkheim claim as an important function of punishing deviants?

It helps define acceptable behavior and thus contributes to social stability.

The theory that attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants and criminals, while others who engage in similar behavior are not is known as ______ theory.

Labeling

Which theory is also called the societal-reaction approach and attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants, whereas others whose behavior is similar are not seen in such harsh terms?

Labeling

Which of the following behaviors are examples of informal social control?

Laughing at someone's joke; Making fun of someone who has demonstrated bad behavior

The term crime refers to a violation of a

Law

According to Edwin Sutherland's theory about cultural transmission and how it affects behavior, a person

Learns criminal behavior by interacting with others

A professional criminal is someone who

Makes a business of committing crimes

Once people have had a stigma attached to their identities, they

May experience lowered self-esteem; Often have trouble presenting a positive image to others.

According to feminist criminologists, many of the existing approaches to deviance and crime were developed with only

Men in mind

According to the United Nations, which of the following are transnational crimes?

Migrant smuggling; Theft of cultural artifacts; Terrorism

If most rapes are never reported to the police, how do we know they happen at all?

Most of the women who tell researchers they were raped say they never reported their attack to the police

Informal social control is used by people to casually enforce social

Norms

People ______ their superiors and ______ their peers.

Obey; conform to

All of the following are examples of informal social control except

Sending someone to jail

When sociologist William Chambliss observed the Saints and the Roughnecks, what did he conclude?

Social class played an important role in the varying fortunes of the two groups

The sociologist Howard Becker made the statement that "deviant behavior is behavior that people so label." He is associated with which approach to deviance?

Societal-reaction approach

The social psychologist ______ made a useful distinction between conformity and obedience.

Stanley Milgram

Erving Goffman coined the term _______ to describe the labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups.

Stigma

Which of the following are examples of white-collar crimes?

Stock manipulation; Corruption; Tax fraud

What was sociologist Daniel Bell describing with the term ethnic succession?

The sequential passage of organized crime leadership from one immigrant culture to another

The term differential justice can best be defined as

The type of treatment that different races, ethnic groups, or social classes get from the criminal justice system

What is organized crime?

The work of a group that regulates relations among criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities

Supporters of decriminalization believe that prostitution, smoking marijuana, and illegal gambling are ______ crimes.

Victimless

Which of the following would most sociologists consider deviant?

Violating group norms, whether the behavior is legal or illegal; Anything that violates accepted social norms

Crime statistics in the United States show

An indication of the level of certain crimes.

Émile Durkheim used the term ______ to describe the loss of direction felt by individuals in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective.

Anomie

Crime refers to

Anything that violates criminal law

Which of the following are crimes reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Uniform Crime Report?

Arson; Robbery; Rape; Murder

Which of the following are index crimes that are tabulated each year by the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

Assault; Larceny-theft; Motor vehicle theft

What is the term for behavior that violates the norms or expectations of a group or a society?

Deviance

Social control can best be described as the techniques and strategies for preventing ______ behavior in any group or society.

Deviant

When members of a culture violate the norms of that culture, they are displaying ______ behavior.

Deviant

The sociologist Edwin Sutherland used the term ______ for when people violate laws after being exposed to attitudes that are favorable to violation of the law.

Differential association

If a criminal justice system treats a certain race or social class differently from another race or social class, it is displaying

Differential justice

Which of the following are examples of white-collar cybercrime?

Online auction site scams; Identity theft

When an illegal activity, such as prostitution or gambling, is regulated by a group, it could be said that this activity is dominated by

Organized crime

According to sociologist Travis Hirschi's control theory, what is the main reason people conform to social norms?

Our bonds to family, friends, and peers influence us to go along with social mores.

Professional criminals resemble ______, in that they have work-based relationships and become part of a subculture related to their field.

People in ordinary occupations

According to conflict theorists, criminal laws ______.

Reflect competing values and interests

Penalties and rewards related to social norms are referred to as

Sanctions

The term social control refers to the

Techniques and strategies used to prevent deviant human behavior in any society.

What are some of the possible explanations sociologists have given for the decline in crime?

The decline of the crack cocaine epidemic of the late 1980s; New crime prevention programs; The aging of the population

Which of the following statements about hate crimes are true?

They are defined by both the purpose of the offenders' conduct and their actions; They are sometimes referred to as bias crimes; An ordinary crime can be a hate crime if the offender chooses a victim based on race, religion, ethnic group, national origin, or sexual orientation.

Which term specifically refers to crime that occurs across multiple national borders?

Transnational crime

Which examples demonstrate how technology has negatively affected standards of social behavior?

Uncivil online comments; Abusive voicemail; Inappropriate posts to online discussion boards

In which of the following countries was violent crime the most common during the 1980s and 1990s?

United States