Ch7 Family, School, Peers, And The Youth Crime Test Bank

Chapter 7: Family, School, Peers, and the Youth Crime Problem

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. In family structure studies, the “norm” is considered to be the nuclear family. How is a nuclear family defined?

1. divorced parents and the mother has the birth children
2. heterosexual parents with birth children
3. divorced parents who have remarried and adopted children
4. heterosexual parents with adopted children

2. According to the text, what does research on family structure indicate about youth delinquency?

a. Less time spent with children by parents usually means less quality time spent with children overall.

b. Relationships between one-parent homes and delinquency may be more reflective of parenting skills and parenting styles than family structure.

c. Working mothers who derive satisfaction from their employment do not perform mothering tasks as well as non-employed mothers.

d. The bulk of the evidence is clear that working mothers and single “moms” are a primary cause of delinquent behaviour.

3. According to Baumrind’s (1978, 1991) work on parenting behaviour, which of the following parenting profiles refers to parents who are supportive of their children’s needs and who are demanding of appropriate behaviour?

a. authoritative

b. authoritarian

c. indifferent

d. indulgent

4. Which of the following describes the correlation between family structure and delinquency?

a. Family structure is related to delinquency.

b. Family structure is not a predictor of delinquency.

c. Family structure’s impact on delinquency is rarely affected by other family factors.

d. Family structure has a stronger connection to delinquency than parental attachment.

5. The “blame game” is the blaming of youth and their parents for youth crime. Why is this problematic?

a. It intensifies the serious problem of “parent abuse.”

b. It leaves out and ignores the importance of the “natural hierarchy” of authority in the family.

c. It allows parents to reject their primary responsibility to control and discipline their children.

d. It leads to repressive policies, laws and “solutions,” such as parental responsibility legislation.

6. As discussed in the text, which three provinces have legislation regarding parental responsibility that allows victims of property crime to take civil action against parents of young offenders?

1. Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia
2. British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec
3. Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick
4. Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Ontario

7. According to Regoli and Hewitt (1994), what is problematic about the example question, “What should you do if you find a wallet in a store?” from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) IQ test?

a. Children’s propensity toward dishonesty renders the response to such a question unreliable and biased.

b. Children’s views of appropriate behaviour differ depending upon their experience of racial prejudice or police harassment.

c. Children’s socioeconomic status can greatly impact their capacity for moral reasoning.

d. Children, given their developmental stage, are not able to decipher right from wrong.

8. According to the text, how does the initial moral panic surrounding drug use in North America compare to the more recent moral panic concerning school violence in the 1990s?

a. Both violence and drug use are behaviours that threaten the moral fabric of North American society.

b. Both violence and drug use present a very real threat to the safety and security of Canadian children.

c. Extraordinary security measures are required to control both school violence and drug trafficking.

d. School violence, drug use, and possession did not appear to be issues until white suburban youth became the dealers and users.

9. According to the text, what is the single most important predictor of “official” delinquency?

a. drug use

b. school failure

c. gang membership

d. delinquent friends

10. Mears, Ploeger, and Warr (1998) argued that girls’ moral judgement is sufficient to reduce and even eliminate the impact of delinquent peers, as compared to boys. What does hypothesis does this support?

a. differentially affected

b. differentially exposed

c. differential association

d. differential moral development

11. Gordon (1995) conducted a study on gang members serving time in prisons in BC. He offered a method of organizing gangs into five groups. Which of the following was not mentioned as one of these groups?

1. criminal groups
2. youth groups
3. criminal movements
4. youth movements

12. A crime prevention program is implemented in a neighbourhood with high unemployment. The program focuses specifically on youth who have been convicted of a violent offence. What level of crime prevention would this program fall under?

1. targeted
2. primary
3. secondary
4. tertiary

SHORT ANSWER

1. In family structure studies, the “norm” is considered to be the nuclear family. How is the nuclear family defined? Why could it be problematic to conceptualize family structures in this manner?

• The norm is considered to be a “nuclear” family that consists of two heterosexual parents living with their own (birth) juvenile children.

Problems with this conceptualization

• In reality, families have many different structures, and the model of a traditional nuclear family does not represent the structures of many families today.
• Family structure studies have assumed a traditional model and begin their research with the premise that anything other than this is a problem.

REF: 209-210

1. Explain the four different parenting styles according to Baumrind (1978, 1991).

• Authoritative parents are supportive and demanding. They set standards and have expectations that are consistent with their child’s age. These parents discuss and explain disciplinary matters with their children.
• Authoritarian parents are rejecting and demanding. They value obedience and conformity. These parents tend to restrict their children’s autonomy and to favour the use of punitive disciplinary measures.
• Indulgent parents are supportive but not at all demanding. They give their children considerable freedom, are opposed to control or disciplinary measures, and see themselves more as resources for their children than as disciplinarians.
• Indifferent parents are rejecting and not at all demanding. They spend little time with their children, know little about their children’s activities, and tend to put their own needs above the needs of their children. In extreme cases, indifferent parents neglect their children. Delinquent behaviour is most likely to be found among the children of indifferent parents.

REF: 211-212

1. Summarize and give an example of each of the three levels of crime prevention discussed in the text.

• Primary prevention focuses on an entire population (neighbourhood, school, youth, or nation) and aims to stop problems before they start.

– Example: A school program taught to all students teaching them about steps to take to prevent bullying.

• Secondary prevention focuses specifically on those within a population who are seen to have a problem and aims to stop existing problems from worsening.

– Example: those who have substance abuse issues, or neighbourhoods with high rates of unemployment.

• Tertiary prevention focuses on those small number of individuals or populations who already have serious or chronic problems and aims to stop or effectively control future problems.

– Example: programs aimed at violent or offenders or neighbourhoods with high crime rates.

REF: 246-247

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Gordon (1995) conducted a study on gang members serving time in prisons in British Columbia. What is the definition of a youth gang? Discuss the five different categories of gangs he conceptualized and give an example of each.

• “A youth gang is a self forming association of peers, bound together by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership, well developed lines of authority, and other organizational features, who act in concert to achieve a specific purpose or purposes which generally include the conduct of illegal activity and control over a particular territory, facility, or type of enterprise” (Miller, 1980).
• Youth movements refer to distinctive modes of dress and activities that serve to set one group of young people apart from another.
• Examples could be the “zoot suiters” in the 1950s or hippies in the 1970s.
• Youth groups are small clusters of friends who hang out together in public places.

– Example: a group of skateboarders who frequently hang out in the school after dark or loiter outside the corner store.

• Criminal groups are groups of friends who are together specifically for the purpose of committing a crime and who may consist of young people, adults, or a combination of the two.

– Example: A group of five adults and five youth who get together to vandalize parks around the city but who do not adopt a name for themselves and they don’t wear distinctive clothing.

• Criminal business organization by contrast is a consortium of adults who engage in crime for profit.

– Example: a group of five adult males who steal cars to sell them for parts and who make a living doing so.

• Street gangs are defined as groups of young people and young adults who have banded together to form semistructured organizations, the primary purpose of which is profitable criminal activity. Street gangs differ from youth groups and criminal groups in that members identify themselves as gangs, adopt a name for themselves, and wear distinctive clothing or tattoos.

– Example: the “Crips” or “Blood” street gangs.

REF: 240

1. Discuss the different responses that have been used in an attempt to respond to school violence.

• Educational and preventive programs have been developed in many schools to teach children about the consequences of bullying; constructive ways of responding to threats from other bullying children; and more positive, less destructive ways of responding to other transgressions against them by their schoolmates
• Programs have also been aimed at teachers to assist them in identifying when “roughhousing becomes bullying.”
• It is also being recognized that schools may be more effective sites for preventing and addressing bullying, as parents of bullies are sometimes bullies themselves. This is another way that education and school have been viewed as the great equalizer. However, the effectiveness of school programs is likely to be the greatest when parents also reinforce what is being taught.
• The more general response in Canadian schools and elsewhere, especially in the United States, to violence in schools has been to cut after-school programs, put police officers in schools, and adopt zero-tolerance policies which is a policing ideology and attitude imported in the 1990s from the United States.
• Zero tolerance was adopted in a number of schools but was quickly abandoned, likely because of its potential for targeting minority and already marginalized youth. It now exists as part of more generalized school policies of “codes of conduct.” Many scholars see zero tolerance policies including curfews as an easy excuse for punishing children rather than finding ways to work with them and address issues relating to their social, psychological, and economic well-being. It is yet another way of involving the police in criminalizing youth for minor infractions.
• There are also more creative, positive, and non-punitive ways of addressing school problems. For example, a creative solution to address school vandalism problems in Calgary was to make the space less attractive to potential vandals by playing opera and classical music, which is not normally enjoyed by the type of people involved in this behaviour.

REF: 230-233