UNL SOCI-209 Exam #1 & #2 Test Answers

True

(T/F) According to Rational Choice Theory, motivation is a given--we are all motivated to commit crime.

False

(T/F) According to Wingfield's (2016) "Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever," current research shows that racial residential segregation persists today because of explicit, aggressive, and openly discriminatory housing choices among white residents.

True

(T/F) As discussed in lecture and evidenced in Patton's 2015 article on black children in America, some aspects of the early biological explanations for behavior persist today through the effect of implicit biases on age perceptions.

False

(T/F) As discussed in lecture, the assertion that increased immigration is associated with increased crime has been supported by the existing empirical research.

True

(T/F) As discussed in lecture, the association between IQ and crime is likely indirect, through things like school success and moral reasoning.

False

(T/F) As discussed in lecture, the majority of crime is interracial.

False

(T/F) As discussed in lecture, violence is an expressive crime and can therefore never be planned or purposeful.

False

(T/F) Because it is a household survey, the NCVS interviews all members of a household.

True

(T/F) In "What happens when schoolchildren live in violent neighborhoods?..." Balingit (2018) discusses recent research illustrating that the negative effects of exposure to neighborhood violence can extend throughout all children in the same classroom, affecting even those students *not* exposed to violence themselves.

True

(T/F) Multiplying the crime rate by 100,000 standardizes the rate.

False

(T/F) Objective deterrence is more influential for behavior than subjective deterrence.

True

(T/F) Privilege affects the way people move through the world and whether/how they are discriminated against. According to Crosley-Corcoran's (2014) "Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person," (and as discussed in lecture) the concept of intersectionality recognizes that people can be privileged in some ways and not privileged in others.

False

(T/F) Privilege affects the way people move through the world and whether/how they are discriminated against. According to Crosley-Corcoran's (2014) "Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person," recognizing privilege necessitates that we feel guilt or shame for our "lot in life."

False

(T/F) The FBI publishes an annual ranking of the most violent cities in America.

False

(T/F) The majority of law enforcement agencies in the U.S. participate in NIBRS.

Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians

According to "Discrimination in Housing..." and "Segregation Now....." (Dewan 2013; Wingfield 2016 [assigned for social structural theories]), ______, _________, and ______ continue to experience discrimination in housing?

The Serial Killer Fallacy

According to Felson and Boba (2010), which of the following is NOT one of the 9 crime fallacies?

Atavists

According to Lombroso, ________ committed crimes because they were less evolved than law-abiding men.

Conformity

According to Merton's strain theory, accepting both the cultural goals of society and the legitimate means of achieving those goals illustrates which behavior?

Strain

According to Merton, the conflict between one's aspirations and ability to fulfill them leads to:

Structure

According to _________ theories, individuals who break the law do so not because they choose to or because something is inherently wrong with them, but rather because they have been victims of (external) circumstances beyond their control.

- Cultural Goals -Institutional Means

According to anomie theory, a disconnect between the ________ _____ and the _____________ _____ produces strain and frustration, which may lead to deviant behavior.

Represent and protect views and interest of the powerful

According to conflict theory, criminal law was created to do what?

Emotional

According to general strain theory, crying after experiencing a strain in order to relieve the negative feelings brought on by the strain is an example of _________ coping.

Behavioral

According to general strain theory, physically assaulting someone who is insulting you is an example of __________ coping.

Cognitive

According to general strain theory, reinterpreting a situation in order to de-emphasize the strain in one's own mind or to accept personal responsibility for it is an example of _________ coping.

Social Structure

According to lecture, which theoretical approach locates the origin of crime in problem in the immediate social environment?

If the victim will be harmed

According to rational choice theory, when deciding whether to commit crime, offenders consider all of the following except:

Identifying 3 sources of strain

Agnew's General Strain Theory (GST) extends Merton's original strain theory by doing what?

Normlessness

As described in the text, according to Emile Durkheim (an early originator of strain theory), "anomie" involves a state of ____________.

- Goals - Means

As discussed by strain theorists, _____ are what we are socialized to want, while _____ are the rules we are socialized to follow to achieve those wants.

Community-based, non-profit organizations

As discussed in "Two Lessons of the Urban Crime Decline," which of the following does Sharkey (2018) identify as having a "critical but underappreciated role" in reducing crime?

Explain why some people commit crime

As discussed in Chapter 2, the Positivist school of thought developed as a reaction to perceived limitations in Classical theories of crime and deviance. Positivists offered a number of critiques of classical theories. A central critique among Positivists was that Classical theories FAILED to do which of the following?

Lifestyle

As discussed in Chapter 4, which of the following perspectives argues that crime arises from how individuals live their lives, the choices they make, and the thinking patterns that characterize their daily activities?

Increased Religiosity

As discussed in lecture and "Crime Decline in Context" (Rosenfeld, 2002), after peaking in the 1990s, crime has been declining for over a decade. The decline is due to a number of factors. Which of the following in NOT one of them:

Most mass shooters are not mentally ill

As discussed in lecture and in Rosenwald's (2016) article on mass shooters, what is the fundamental problem behind advocating for increased funding for mental health treatment as an effort to prevent mass shootings?

Positivist Criminology

As discussed in lecture and text, almost all biological theories of crime are rooted in what perspective?

Hormone Levels

As discussed in lecture and text, which of the following modern lines of research connecting biology and behavior faces the criticism that it may have cause and effect order reversed? Research on _______ _______.

- NCVS information on the characteristics of victims and the context of victimization has furthered the development of theories of victimization. - The NCVS can collect information on crimes even if they are not reported to the police

As discussed in lecture and the assigned readings, which of the following are the two major advantages of the NCVS in comparison to the UCR?

Physiognomy

As discussed in lecture and the text, one of the earliest biological theories of crime, ___________ sought to identify distinct facial features of people who committed crimes. Included among indicators of dangerousness were men without beards, weak chins, a deceitful nose, and "shifty" eyes.

Removing signs of physical disorder does not address larger problems causing both disorder and crime.

As discussed in lecture, Broken Windows Theory located the cause of crime in the physical disorder of communities, arguing that removing disorder would directly decrease crime. What was a major criticism/limitation of this approach?

Broken Windows

As discussed in lecture, ______ _______ theory suggests that crime can be reduced by removing the physical disorder that is an important component of urban blight.

Expected Utility

As discussed in lecture, according to Rational Choice Theory, decision-making about crime involves weighing the risks against the rewards, using an ________ _______ model.

~ 17%

As discussed in lecture, according to US Census data, Hispanics make up about ________ % of the population.

61

As discussed in lecture, according to US Census data, non-Hispanic Whites make up about what % of the population?

Conservative Values

As discussed in lecture, all of the following are reasons for the decline of crime after the mid-1990's EXCEPT:

~ 60%

As discussed in lecture, approximately what proportion of victims *do not* report crime?

View black children as older and more threatening

As discussed in lecture, biological assumptions about behavior persist today, as evidenced by implicit associations. As evidenced in the assigned readings (APA 2014; Patton 2015) one direct extension is the public's tendency to:

"All of the Above"

As discussed in lecture, media coverage of crime often results in public ignorance about:

Collective Socialization

As discussed in lecture, much research on neighborhoods focuses on understanding how neighborhoods "work," highlighting several types of neighborhood intervening mechanisms thought to explain the link between structural characteristics (e.g., poverty) and deviant behavior. __________ _____________ mechanisms focus on the effect of the presence or absence of positive adult role models in particular neighborhoods.

Institutional

As discussed in lecture, much research on neighborhoods focuses on understanding how neighborhoods "work," highlighting several types of neighborhood intervening mechanisms thought to explain the link between structural characteristics (e.g., poverty) and deviant behavior. _____________ mechanisms focus on the regulatory capacity of schools or police.

The Agenda Fallacy

As discussed in lecture, public opinion on crime tends to be overly fearful. The recent influx of fake news (often spread through social media--a key source of information for many citizens) risks exacerbating public fear and increasing public support for specific policies (e.g., tough-on-crime strategies, anti-immigration legislation, etc.). The strategic use of fake news and fueling of public fear is an example of which of the crime fallacies described by Felson and Boba?

- Expectation - Violation - Reaction

As discussed in lecture, the following are the three elements of deviance:

- Definitions, causes, and dynamics of criminal behavior - Creation of criminal law - Society's efforts to control, punish, and prevent crime

As discussed in lecture, the following dimensions of criminology are:

- Overdramatizing crime - Distorting the facts in reference to crime among racial and ethnic minorities - Exaggerating interracial crime

As discussed in lecture, the media help to create and reinforce crime myths in which of the following ways (check *all* that apply)?

- Thugs - Mentally Ill

As discussed in lecture, the media uses racially-biased language when describing similar behaviors among members of different racial/ethnic groups (e.g., riot vs. rowdy). Butler (2015), in the assigned reading, notes another instance of this, wherein black shooters are more often described as _____ while white shooters are described as ________ ___.

Central Business District

As discussed in lecture, which zone is at the very center of the concentric zone model?

Economy

As discussed in the text (chapter 7), according to Institutional Anomie Theory, which social institution is the most influential in American society?

Lead Toxicity

As discussed in the text and lecture, contemporary biosocial criminologists emphasize the physiological consequences of exposure to environmental risk factors. Which environmental toxin was discussed in lecture (and highlighted in the documentary "Here's to Flint") as having a significant impact on early childhood development and later antisocial behavior?

Collective Efficacy

As discussed in the text and lecture, renewed interest in social structural theories was followed by efforts to better understand how neighborhoods "work." One such mechanism, __________ ________, refers to community residents' ability to be proactive in protecting the interests of their community.

Retreatism

As discussed in the text, according to Merton, alcoholics and drug addicts are all examples of which adaptation to anomie?

- Dependent - Independent

As discussed in the text, crime is the foremost _________ variable within criminology; age is one ___________ variable expected to cause or influence crime.

Social Contract

As discussed in the text, first introduced by Thomas Hobbes, a primary concept in criminology is the ______ ________, which involves the sacrifice of some personal freedom by endorsement of governmental law enforcement in exchange for protection and the benefit of all.

Heritability

As discussed in the text, the ___________ coefficient (used by biosocial criminologists) is a statistical estimate that provides information on how much genetic factors influence variance in a particular behavioral trait.

XYY

As discussed in the text, the chromosomal abnormality that most interests some criminologists is:

Concordance

As discussed in the text, when both members of a twin-pair act alike, biosocial criminologists have observed ___________, which they argue lends support to the belief that behavior has a genetic component.

VIVA - Value ($$$) - Inertia (Movability) - Visibility (0_o) - Accessibility (How easy it is to Grab & Run Away)

As discussed in the text, which acronym corresponds to the criteria for evaluating the suitability of targets (according to Routine Activities Theory)?

Critics fear that policy implications are invasive and potentially harmful.

As discussed in the text, which of the following statements best summarizes the barriers facing biological theories in criminology?

Crime is generally decreasing but the public believes it is increasing

As illustrated in lecture, using crime data and survey data, which statement best reflects the association between crime trends and public opinion?

Urbancity

As outlined in social disorganization theory, which structural (neighborhood-level) factors combine to undermine neighborhood social organization? Select all that apply.

~ 18.3%

As presented in lecture, according to 2016 data from the UCR, the proportion of property crimes cleared by arrest was approximately:

~ 46%

As presented in lecture, according to 2016 data from the UCR, the proportion of violent crimes cleared by arrest was approximately:

Bounded Rationality

Because they often lack complete information and/or the time to process the risks and rewards of crime, offenders are thought to act within a _______ ___________.

Deviance

Behavior that violates social norms and arouses negative social reactions is called what?

Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay

Between 1900 and the 1930s, which two University of Chicago researchers developed social disorganization theory by studying delinquency rates in Chicago and attributing delinquency rates to "types of places" instead of "types of people"?

Neurotransmitters

Biosocial researchers attribute deviant behavior to a complex interplay between hormones, genes, and the brain. A key physiological component in this interaction are _________________, which are the chemical messengers that allow neurons in the brain to communicate.

Public Issues

C. Wright Mills emphasized that what people may define as private troubles are often more accurately described as what?

The Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills referred to the ability to understand the structural and historical basis for personal troubles as what?

- The removal (or threatened removal) of valued stimuli - Being prevented from achieving valued goals - The presentation (or threat of presentation) of negative stimuli

Consistent with the tenets of General Strain Theory (GST), which of the following are the means through which individuals may experience strain?

Stigmata

Described in the text, the physical features of "less evolved" persons who were "born criminal"--according to Cesare Lombroso--were referred to as ________.

Environmental

Determinism takes the position that human behavior may be caused by biological, psychological, and/or _____________ factors

Relative

Deviance is a ________ concept.

The Denominator Problem

Differences in UCR crime rates between cities due to differences in city configuration (e.g., the size/shape and population composition of cities) is known as the what problem?

Only to be punitive enough

During the Enlightenment, Cesare Beccaria argued that in order to deter people from committing crime, the law needed ____ __ __ ________ ______.

Habituating to the crime

Event decisions have at least five stages. Which of the following is not one of these?

Cortisol

In "Studying How Poverty Keeps Hurting Young Minds..." Dwyer (2016) describes living in poverty as "playing football without a helmet; everyday life causes social concussions." Utilizing a biosocial perspective attuned to hormones and brain development, Dwyer (2016) notes that poverty places children at risk of exposure to multiple, chronic stressors--these stressors contribute to an increase in which hormone?

A Repressed ID

In Freudian psychology, where does pressure build up and "break through" to cause criminal behavior?

Rates of upward socioeconomic mobility vary in different parts of the U.S.

In Leonhardt's (2013) "Climbing the Income Ladder..." we learn that:

Guns

In Rosenwald's (2016) discussion of mass shooters and mental illness, in lieu of mental health services, Rosenwald describes evidence suggesting that reducing access to ____ may reduce violence and mass shootings (although such measures are not without their critics and challenges).

General Deterrence

In terms of Deterrence Theory, _______ deterrence occurs when members of the public decide not to break the law because they fear legal punishment.

Specific Deterrence

In terms of Deterrence Theory, ________ deterrence is when offenders already punished for one crime are deterred from committing a second crime, because of their original punishment.

Marginal Deterrence

In terms of Deterrence Theory, ________ deterrence refers to the effect of increasing the severity, certainty, and/or swiftness of legal punishment.

Absolute Deterrence

In terms of Deterrence Theory, ________ deterrence refers to the overarching deterrent effect of having some legal punishment versus the effect of having no legal punishment.

Subjective Deterrence

In terms of Deterrence Theory,___________ deterrence refers to the impact of people's perceptions of the likelihood and severity of legal punishment--that is, the deterrent effect of the type of punishment I *think* I might receive.

- Individuals - Groups

Individual perspectives explore why certain ___________ commit crime, while sociological perspectives explore why crime is higher among certain ______.

Horizontal Social Structure

Introduced early during lecture, but relevant for social structural theories, this refers to the social relationships and social/physical characteristics of communities:

Vertical Social Structure

Introduced early in the semester, but still applicable to social structural theories, this term refers to the ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and life chances in society.

General Strain Theory (GST)

Jenny is 20 years old and works 40 hours a week at the supermarket for minimum wage. After paying her rent and living expenses every month, she has only a few dollars left to buy new clothes that she regularly sees advertised on TV. Considering her situation, Jenny visits her local mall and steals purses from women who left them unattended. Before they can report their credit cards missing, Jenny goes on a shopping spree through all the high-end stores. Which theory can best explain Jenny's behavior?

Deterrence

John is 40 and works at a bank. One day he decides he'd really like to have a Mustang. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the money. He considers how he might take the money from the vault, but he also thinks what doing something like this would do to his wife and children, his aging mother, not to mention his reputation. He also thinks about the likelihood that he'd get caught and what punishment he'd received from the court. At the end of the day, John decides he'd likely get caught and robbing the bank isn't worth the potential negative consequences. So he locks up the vault that night and takes the bus home. Which theory can best explain John's behavior?

Free Will

Nineteenth-century positivism, which supplanted classical criminology, took issue primarily with which assumption of classical theory?

It involves frequent, unpredictable norm violations

Of the following, which statement best describes schizophrenia?

Neurosis

One of the psychological explanations for crime and deviance, ________ is the extreme inability to comprehend reality and respond appropriately.

General Strain Theory (GST)

Pam is 16 and had a pretty rough week at school. She failed a mid-term exam, forgot to turn in an important assignment, and got detention for smoking in the bathroom. Even worse, she found out her boyfriend cheated on her with a close friend. Pam feels depressed and angry and like she has no control over the situation. She runs into another friend, to whom she tells her sad tale. Her friend suggests she try to forget about things for awhile and offers her some pills. Pam agrees and swallows the pills. Which theory best explains Pam's behavior?

Phrenology

Popular from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, __________ concerned the size and shape of the skull in explaining crime.

False

Privilege affects the way people move through the world and whether/how they are discriminated against. According to Crosley-Corcoran's (2014) "Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person," skin-color privilege is the only type of privilege in the United States.

Specific Deterrence

Punishing an offender for a DUI by sentencing him/her to 30 days in jail is trying to realize what dimension of deterrence?

- Prevalence - Incidence

Self-report studies can be used to demonstrate the __________ of offending—the proportion of respondents who have committed a particular offense at least once in the time period under study—and the _________ of offending—the average number of offenses per person in the study.

Norms

Shared assumptions about how we—and others—ought and ought not act in any given situation are called _____.

Rebellion

Social radicals and revolutionaries often break the law in an attempt to transform it. Their behavior exemplifies which adaptation to anomie?

Relative Deprivation

Social structure theorists argue that one reason the economically deprived become angry and frustrated might be their realization that other people in society are much wealthier. In comparing themselves to more advantaged groups, they experience ________ ___________.

Rational Choice Theory

Stan selects his robbery victims will be very carefully. He targets drug dealers because he reasons they're carrying a lot of cash and the "merchandise" is easily sold. He reasons there's little risk in robbing a dealer - he thinks few dealers carry guns (in case they're arrested), no one is likely to intervene or help, and the dealer isn't going to report the robbery to the police. He decides the rewards of robbing a dealer outweigh the risk, so he chooses to go on the prowl. Which theory can best explain Stan's behavior?

Humans are inherently good

Strain theories (especially later approaches by Merton and Agnew) adhere to which perspective about human nature?

Frustrated or under stress

Strain theories generally make the case that people are more likely to commit crime when they are what?

The Dramatic Fallacy

TV and news media seek out violent and strange incidents to keep their ratings high. This contributes to which fallacy of crime?

Severity

The ________ of punishment refers to whether someone is incarcerated and, if so, for how long.

Certainty

The _________ of punishment refers to the likelihood of being arrested.

~ 17 years old

The age-crime curve illustrates that crime generally peaks around what age?

The Clery Act

The federal mandate requiring institutions of higher education to collect and report data about crime on campus and surrounding community is called the what?

Social Disorganization

The loss of automobile manufacturing jobs has had a devastating effect on the city of Detroit. Many people lost their jobs, and were unable to pay their rent or mortgages. Families were evicted, and homes were foreclosed. Residents who had enough money fled the city in search of more promising prospects (e.g., jobs, affordable housing) in the suburbs and surrounding areas. leaving the most disadvantaged residents behind. The center part of the city has been particularly impacted. Businesses have closed their doors, the local recreation center has shut down, and only a handful of churches remain open. Buildings have been vandalized and fallen into disrepair. Schools are among the worst in the state. The residents who do remain are fearful and mistrusting of each other. Criminal activity has been increasing, and the city regularly appears on the "Top 10 most violent cities in America" list. Which theory can best explain what is going on in Detroit?

Using value-laden language when referring to criminals (i.e. thug when referring to African-Americans)

The news media's crime coverage contributes to misinformation in which of the following ways?

- "All of the Above" - Observed repeatedly -Pattern where we see consistent increase starting in early in adolescence, peaking in young adult (17), and lessening as one ages

The pattern known as the age-crime curve is believed to exist because of what?

Rape and family violence

The potential for under-reporting in the NCVS is especially high for what two kinds of violence?

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)

The primary source of U.S. crime statistics remains

Privilege

The ranking of your societal position (or some entitlement or advantage) is known as what?

Net-Widening

The recent increase in girls' arrest for simple assault can be explained by policy changes such as criminalizing family violence and charging less serious conduct as assault. As discussed in lecture, this phenomenon is known as ___-________.

Places

The revival of structural theories reflects the belief of many scholars that kinds of ______ matter more than kinds of people.

Horizontal Social Structure

The social relationship and social physical characteristics of communities to which individuals belong is known as what social structure?

Medical Model

This perspective equates being a criminal with having a disease:

Cross-Sectional Survey

This self-report survey design collects data from one group at one point in time.

Longitudinal Survey

This self-report survey design collects data from the same individuals over multiple points in time.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

To gather more information on Index crimes, the FBI has recently begun what system, involving the collection from police departments of extensive information about criminal incidents, including the relationship between offenders and victims and the use of alcohol and other drugs immediately before the offense.

Contagion/Epidemic

Viewed in class, the documentary "Shell Shocked" profiles the city of New Orleans, LA--described as "the murder capital of the U.S."--and hears the testimonies of the young people living in these violent circumstances. As discussed by both Ed Buckner and several of the teens interviewed, the proliferation of peer pressure for retaliation is an example of which mechanism of neighborhood effects?

Innovation

Viewed in class, the documentary "Shell Shocked" profiles the city of New Orleans, LA--described as "the murder capital of the U.S."--and hears the testimonies of the young people living in these violent circumstances. As the narrator notes, "For kids who need income, selling drugs often seems like the only available job." This is an example of which adaptation to strain, as discussed in lecture and text?

Deterrence

Viewed in class, the documentary "Shell Shocked" profiles the city of New Orleans, LA--described as "the murder capital of the U.S."--and hears the testimonies of the young people living in these violent circumstances. The film also features interviews with a number of community leaders, activists, and youth program directors. In discussing the ineffectiveness of law for social control, Father Bill Terry states, "Make the laws harsher? How harsh is harsh? When you're a kid on the street with a mac-10 and some rock, you don't care whether you can go away for life or not..." This observation reflects a key limitation with which theory of crime?

Collective Socialization

Viewed in class, the documentary "Shell Shocked" profiles the city of New Orleans, LA--described as "the murder capital of the U.S."--and hears the testimonies of the young people living in these violent circumstances. The film also features interviews with a number of community leaders, activists, and youth program directors. One such person, Omar Buckner, head of Liberty's Kitchen (which provides job training to recently released juvenile detainees), discusses how many of the young people in the most disadvantaged New Orleans neighborhoods don't get to see models of "people getting up and going to work..." Omar's observation about the importance of role models is consistent with which mechanism of neighborhood effects?

Intelligence

We have discussed 3 key markers of inequality in our society. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

Most people would like to be law-abiding

What is assumed about people's basic motivations in almost all strain theories?

Vertical Social Structure

What social structure is more commonly called social inequality and refers to the system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy?

Rousseau

Which Enlightenment thinker believed humans were inherently GOOD?

Supplementary Homicide Reports (SRS or SHR)

Which dataset adheres to the Hierarchy Rule?

- Specific characteristics and causes of behavior can be identified scientifically - Differences in physical and/or psychological characteristics account for differences in behavior - Behavior is due to forces beyond our control

Which of the following are core assumptions of biological and psychological positivist thinking in criminology?

- Hispanics are now the largest minority group in America. - Hispanics' crime rates are generally explained by the fact that they tend to live amidst structural criminogenic conditions. - Hispanics have higher serious crime and victimization rates than non-Hispanic whites have, but lower rates than African Americans have.

Which of the following statements regarding Hispanic population dynamics and Hispanic criminality is TRUE?

Micro

_____-level theories focus on individual and small-group behavior.

Macro

_____-level theories focus on the role of structural properties of society, such as inequality and culture.

Deterrence

__________ theory assumes that potential and actual punishment can prevent crime from occurring.

Situational

___________ crime prevention involves efforts in specific locations that aim to reduce exposure to motivated offenders, decrease target suitability, and increase capable guardianship.

Testosterone

____________ differences are thought by some researchers to explain not only why men commit more crime than women, but also why some men commit more crime than other men.