Sociology Chapter Five Exam

What is the definition of deviance?

A behavior trait belief or other character that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction.

What is the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)?

An official measure of crime in the US, produced by the FBI's official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies.

In the United States, the ______ is made up of legislatures, the police, courts, and prisons.

Criminal Justice System

In what aspects of stigma are symbolic interactionists interested?

Deviance is relative and depends on culture, time, and situation.

Given Jack Katz's theory of crime, what do you think would be the best subtitle for his book The Seductions of Crime?

Foreground of Deviance

What must behavior, trait, or belief do in order to be considered deviant?

Have a serious negative reaction or punishment

How do sociologists define positive deviance?

Instances where a rule violation is an admirable act that should be supported.

According to _____, there are several reasons why adolescents might shoplift. One reason is the material appeal of the objects that are taken, but more importantly, they regard "getting away with it" as a demonstration of personal competence.

Jack Katz

According to labeling theory, why were none of the pseudo-patients in David Rosenhan's "On Being Sane in Insane Places" discovered?

Once labeled schizophrenic, the pseudo patient was stuck to that label and wasn't able to be seen as anything else.

Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice after lying to the FBI during an investigation of her sale of a stock that dramatically fell in value immediately after she sold it. Her conviction was unusual, as this sort of white collar crime is much more likely to be dealt with in civil, rather than criminal, court. How does the tendency to deal with white collar criminals in civil court bias our understanding of the demographics of crime?

People in high status get dealt with differently than people of lower status.

The Amish have neither the resources nor the desire to use prison as a sanction against members of their community who violate the rules. What sanction do they use instead?

Shunning

Asian American students are more likely to be placed in Advanced Placement classes, score higher grades, and be treated well by teachers. This is called what?

Stereotype promise

Most sociological studies of deviance focus on elements of an individual's background that would predispose him or her to act in deviant ways. What is the key problem with such an approach?

They are labeled deviant so it is harder for them to be accepted.

When studying deviance, sociologists often focus on the most obvious and extreme forms of deviant behavior. What are the consequences of this approach?

They fail to question how the ways in which they define themselves may have perpetrated inequalities and untruths.

Construction crews are constantly annoyed at the way people, mostly teenage boys, steal orange cones and flashing pylons that mark construction zones. According to Jack Katz, why does this sort of deviance happen?

They get a rush of excitement from taking things that catch their eye

How do self-fulfilling prophecies work?

Thinking a stereotype is true and worrying about not conforming to it, can unintentionally confirm the stereotype.

Stealing avocados or almost any other agricultural product is a felony in California if the product is worth more than $100. A _______ would say that such laws target homeless people who have little power in society and are simply trying to eat

conflict theorist

What theory argues that punishments for rule violators are unequally distributed, with those near the top of society subject to more lenient rules and sanctions than those at the bottom?

conflict theory

Which theory suggests crimes committed by the upper classes are typically treated more leniently than crimes committed by the lower classes because laws represent the interests of those in power?

conflict theory

A person who pickpockets might have had a hand cut off as ________ during the times of Colonial America. It was considered symbolically appropriate to punish the part of the body most directly connected with the crime

corporal punishment

What do we call norm violations that are codified into law?

crime

In his book Streetwise, Elijah Anderson argues that young African American men are more likely to be arrested because they are perceived as more _______ than others

criminal

A man's computer is hacked; by stealing his identity, the hacker is able to steal money from the man's bank account. The man is a victim of _________

cyber crime

Some people utilize social media as an enhanced form of condescending attacks known as...

cyberbullying

Jewish families as well as African Americans and Hispanics were not permitted to purchase houses in the suburb of Lakewood, California, when it was first built in 1950. However, within a few years, the developers reversed this policy and started selling homes to families regardless of religious faith or ethnicity. This tells us that stigmatized ________ change over time

deviance

Hate crimes targeting Arab Americans and those mistakenly identified as Arab increased after Arab identity became stigmatized. What sort of stigma was this?

in group orientation

Many people today argue that convicted sex offenders should be chemically castrated or held in protective custody beyond their original sentences. What is the logic of these punishments?

incapicitation

Earlier societies did not have sufficient resources to operate prisons, therefore __________ was rarely used before the 19th century.

incarceration

In the United States face tattoos are not the ______.

norm

According to Erving Goffman, stigmatized individuals who do not believe that they should have to change or conceal their identities to make "_____" people more comfortable have in-group orientation.

normals

A woman writes on her social media, "I am black, trans, and proud!", this is an example of in-group __________.

orientation

Martin Luther King Jr., went to jail many times for acts of civil disobedience, such as ignoring court orders prohibiting marches and boycotts. Some people, even those who agreed with him, criticized him for disobeying the law. Today, however, most people view these actions as a form of _______ deviance.

positive

David Rosenhan describes in "On Being Sane in Insane Places" that researchers posing as "_____" in a mental hospital but otherwise acting normally were treated as mentally ill by the hospital staff

pseudo-patients

According to the Uniform Crime Report, murder is MOST likely committed by a friend or..

relative

Brooke is a PhD candidate in the field of nanophysics. She is aware that only 4 percent of physics professionals are women. Brooke has heard peers and even instructors say that this is because women struggle to comprehend complex mathematics. When Brooke scores below her male counterparts on an exam, she may be experiencing the ______

stereotype threat

Some Americans are angry about the number of immigrants who enter the country every year. An adherent of _________ functionalist would argue that this anger promotes social cohesion among nonimmigrants as they come together and label immigrants as outsiders

structural

Corporal punishments like branding or amputation were commonly used in colonial America. What were these punishments designed to do?

teach people lessons by using pain so that they always remember

What does the sociologist Jack Katz think sociologists should study when trying to understand deviance instead of solely examining background factors?

the foreground of deviance

Why might teenagers shoplift according to Jack Katz's Seductions of Crime?

the teenagers find a rush in doing these actions

What is the justification for harsh sentencing guidelines like California's controversial "three strikes" law?

to deter people from committing crimes

An upper-middle-class, white college student is sentenced to rehab for the same drug crime that a lower-class, black man is sentenced to jail for committing? A conflict theorist might conclude that the rules are applied ________ and those with power or influence are punished much less harshly

unequally

Some people worry about maintaining a tan. Sometimes, if they do not have the time to tan naturally, they go to a tanning salon or use chemicals to simulate a tan. This might seem bizarre in some cultures, which can help us realize that the line between beauty and ________ is fluid and changes across time and place.

deviance

There are usually serious consequences when a politician is caught cheating on his spouse. In some cases, the politician is forced to resign from his office when his constituents loudly express their unhappiness with such behavior. According to Émile Durkheim, what function does this reaction serve?

deviance can help a society clarify its moral boundaries

Today, using the wrong fork to eat a salad at a dinner party would NOT usually qualify as ____, because it is not a serious enough norm violation to provoke sanctions

deviant

After a woman's teenage son engages in deviant behavior, she says the reason for her son's behavior is that "he fell in with a bad crowd." From a symbolic interactionist perspective, this explanation MOST closely resembles a ___________ association.

differential

Traditionally, most of the sociological literature on deviance focuses on ______.

goal of success

What is one of the principal reasons people turn to deviant behavior in the United States according to the structural strain theory of deviance as articulated by Robert Merton?

innovation

Travis Hirschi proposed social control theory, which suggests that individuals who have stronger bonds are ______ likely to commit crime?

less