sociology chapter 7 exam

Regarding the death penalty, which country carries out the most executions annually?

China

What do critics argue is the downside to hate crime legislation?

It punishes people for their beliefs, not just their actions.

What was Karl Marx's perception of the law?

Law exists to protect the interests of powerful people.

What is one important reason that crime rates have fallen in the United States since the 1980s?

More criminals have been sent to prison in the last 30 years than ever before

According to Albert Cohen, people typically form delinquent subcultures because they

are cut off from legitimate opportunity to gain success.

The idea that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions is the basis of

labeling theory

The illegal distribution of alcohol during Prohibition was an example of

organized crime.

Hirschi's control theory states that social control leading to conformity depends on

people anticipating and caring about the consequences of their behavior

According to social-conflict analysis, the people we tend to label as deviant are typically those who are

relatively powerless in society

In 2009, people between the ages of ________ represented just 14 percent of the U.S. population but were responsible for 38 percent of all arrests for violent crimes and 46 percent of arrests for property crimes.

15 and 24

As of 2012, the federal government and ______ of the states had enacted legislation that increased penalties for crimes motivated by hatred.

45

Which of the following is an example of deterrence?

A teacher disciplines Colin in front of the class to make an example out of him.

Which of the following is an example of secondary deviance?

Elliot is an honor student at school. After he is caught using recreational drugs by his father, he stops going to school, loses many of his friends, begins to take drugs every day, and is hostile toward members of his family.

Which sociologist argued that deviance performs essential social functions, such as clarifying boundaries and encouraging social change?

Emile Durkheim

____________ is a legal negotiation where a defendant receives a lesser charge in exchange for admitting guilt.

Plea bargaining

__________ is a tactic used by a judge to show a convicted offender the seriousness of his or her crime by initially imprisoning the offender but ultimately issuing probation.

Shock probation

Which of the following approaches states that even when the powerful engage in deviant activities, they still have the resources to resist deviant labels?

Social-Conflict

_________ is a form of punishment that renders an offender incapable of further offenses through imprisonment or execution.

Societal protection

"Young people are more likely to engage in behavior, including delinquency, if they believe their peers encourage it." The previous statement closely supports the

Sutherland's differential association theory.

Which of the following countries has the highest violent crime rate?

The United States

______ now incarcerates a larger share of its population than any other country in the world.

The United States

Why have many states moved away from seeking sentences of capital punishment?

There is a high financial cost to the states of prosecuting capital cases.

What do all instances of deviance have in common?

They are characterized by a differencethat causes the deviant person to be viewed as an outsider.

In what way does labeling theory distinguish how gender influences the way we define deviance?

We use different standards to judge the behavior of males and females.

Ali is sent to prison for car-jacking and released two years later. Statistically speaking, is he likely to repeat his crime?

Yes; recidivism rates are about 70 percent in the United States.

A 2003 study of 400 boys conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin concluded that __________ are strong predictors of adult crime and violence.

a combination of genetic and environmental factors

The violation of a society's formally enacted law is called

a crime

According to Steven Spitzer, which of the following would most likely be considered deviant in our society?

a labor organizer opposing efforts to keep workers from forming unions

According to Erving Goffman, people who acquire __________ may develop a deviant career involving stronger commitment to deviant behavior.

a stigma

Which of the following is an example of a hate crime?

drawing swastikas on Jewish gravestones

In his classic study of the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, Kai Erikson discovered that even though the offenses changed, the proportion of people the Puritans defined as deviant __________ over time.

remained steady

According to Merton's strain theory, an alcoholic who chooses to live by himself, quits his job, and stops talking to his friends would fall into which category of deviance?

retreatism

Gary is angry to find that a coworker took his food out of the office fridge. In retaliation, he takes the coworker's lunch. Gary is engaging in an act of

retribution

Bob learns that his coworker was arrested for car theft. Now that he thinks about it, he swears he once saw his coworker eyeing his car in the parking lot and feels relieved that he always kept his car locked. Bob is engaging in the process of

retrospective labeling.

White-collar crime is best represented by which of the following?

securities fraud

For every one handgun death in Canada, there are ____________ in the United States.

seven

Attachment, opportunity, involvement, and belief are the four different types of

social control to which Hirschi links conformity.

Which of the following theoretical approaches takes a micro-level approach to the issues of deviance?

symbolic interaction

To avoid labeling people as mentally ill when they are simply engaging in behavior we don't agree with, the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz advocates

taking the time to do a lengthy psychiatric profile.

Which of the following is an example of informal social control?

teasing a friend because he listens to Justin Bieber's music

According to __________, the widespread belief that norms and laws are natural and good masks their political character.

the social-conflict and feminist approaches

Kyle, who is a member of a street gang, has had frequent conflicts with teachers and the police. This situation is example of Walter Miller's delinquent subculture characteristic of

trouble

According to the symbolic-interaction approach, the definitions of deviance and conformity are

variable from situation to situation

As odd as it seems, snowball fights are legally banned in Topeka, Kansas. This is an example of

variationin norms and deviance based on cultural differences.

Instruments used by researchers to collect information about people's experiences with crime are called

victimization surveys.

Armed robbery is an example of a __________ crime.

violent

The two major types of crime that make up the FBI's "crime index" are

violent crimes and property crimes.

What is the basic circumstance under which any thought or action may become deviant?

whensome audience concludes that it violates particular norms

Robert Merton asserts that the type of deviance categories of people engage in depends upon

whether society provides the categories of people with means to achieve cultural goals.

The biological and psychological approaches have limited value in explaining deviance because

wrongdoing has more to do with the organization of society.