Ch9 Complete Test Bank Inequality, Crime, and Victimization

PART III: INEQUALITIES AND CRIME

9

Inequality, Crime, and Victimization

CHAPTER OUTLINE

To grasp the phenomenon of crime in the United States, we must examine how social inequality (class, gender, race, and age) contributes to patterns of offending and victimization. Economic benefits, life chances, privileges, and political power are linked to social position: “one’s individual location in society based on the social characteristics of class, gender, race, and age” (p. 216). This chapter surveys how these four forms of inequality both permit and preclude criminal opportunities and shape patterns of victimization. Although each axis of inequality is discussed separately, in the real world social inequalities are interrelated. The approach is sociological rather than individualistic or psychological; it considers general social patterns.

9.1 Class and Crime

Social class is defined as “a group of people who share the same position in the same economic system” (p. 216). Class influences economic relationships and inequalities, as well as the type and seriousness of crime.

Patterns of Crime and Victimization

The official data on crime clearly demonstrate a greater propensity for committing conventional crime among the lower class. The lower class commits the crimes that are most often handled by the police; this is true for adult and juvenile offenders. However, although middle-class males report less involvement in serious conventional crime, class differences in prevalence (the percent of a class committing) and incidence (frequency) barely exist for status offenses and general delinquency. Self-report data confirm the results of the official statistics as well. Recent research (Gutierrez and Shoemaker, 2008) confirms that lower-class males commit more violent offenses and more public offenses. But covert youth crime is higher for middle- and upper-class males. According to the NCVS (2012) chances for rape, robbery, assault, purse snatching, and pick-pocketing increase as family income decreases. Victimization is most frequent for those with incomes below $15,000. Conventional crime is predominantly intraclass; the poor victimize the poor. Property crimes show different patterns. Household burglary victimization declines with family income; motor vehicle theft remains stable between incomes of $15,000 and $35,000; and theft is mostly stable across all income levels. Whereas conventional crimes are disproportionately reported as committed by lower-class people, yet white-collar and political crimes are disproportionately committed by the professional-managerial class. Political and white-collar crimes are interclass events where the poor and the working class are the primary victims of criminal offending by the professional-managerial class. Research explores why some people are repeatedly victimized but others are not. Two factors related to repeated victimization are event dependence (initial victimization increases the probability of subsequent victimization) and heterogeneity (some households more likely to be victimized regardless of past history).

Class and Varieties of Crime

Through years of investigating the relationship between unemployment rates and conventional crime rates, a clear pattern emerges: As unemployment rates increase (even slightly), there are corresponding and predictable increases in property crime and violent crime rates. Urban income inequality promotes violence. Relative class deprivation and inequality seem conducive to higher rates of conventional property crime. When jobs are low paying, unstable, menial, and offer little opportunity for advancement, conventional property crime becomes significantly more attractive. Crimes of the hidden economy (drugs, street prostitution, fencing, etc.) are also structured based on economic conditions; as unemployment rises and economic opportunity diminishes, crimes of the hidden economy become more common. Crimes in the workplace are similarly affected by economic inequalities and compounded by perceived inequalities in the workplace. When belittled or demeaned at work, many employees turn to theft as an act of revenge against the employer or company at the workplace. Jerald Greenberg calls this type of employee theft the “motive to even the score.”

Within the professional-managerial class, the pressure to make a profit for the company is created and enforced by the competitive structure of capitalism. The drive for increased profits creates pressures to lower production costs at the expense of the worker, the consumer, and environmental safety. Often the trade-off is made between profits and costs: When costs are incurred by complying with safety standards, profits are reduced. Corporate managers must also create demand, which can lead to consumer fraud, false advertising, and the like. In short, our profit-driven society means that corporations are inherently criminogenic. Research shows that when corporate profits decline, corporate crime occurs more often (Friedrichs, 2007). Both the structural position of corporate executives within the professional-managerial class and the necessity for profit help us understand corporate crime.

The hidden economy is closely associated with the formal economy as well. Profit motive is part of the symbiotic relationship between criminal syndicates and legitimate businesses; the interests of both are served by helping one another. Illegal profits are laundered through large financial institutions, and labor racketeering inhibits unionization. The state, ostensibly the regulator and voice of the people in the democratic society, may actually serve to protect the profit-making interest of the professional-managerial class. The state is not a simple instrument of a class, but it operates to support a corporation-dominated economy. State managers thus may take actions that facilitate the growth of capitalism and protect the wealthy, rather than protecting the working class and the poor. In addition, U.S. foreign policy and agencies of the U.S. government may protect and preserve the interest of corporations seeking a more “welcoming” business climate in other countries (low taxes, few regulations, low labor costs, no unions, etc.). Because revolutionary movements in Latin and Central America and Africa threaten corporate profits, the U.S. government has supported reactionary and oppressive regimes to quell public protest and movements for change (e.g., the Shah in Iran and Pinochet in Chile). The CIA and NSC have also moved to overthrow democratically elected governments.

9.2 Gender and Crime

Gender is “historically and culturally developed behavior resulting from relationships” between males and females, among females, and among males. Gender relations have resulted in unequal relationships between females and males. Gender inequality has consequences for crime and victimization. Gender is probably the best predictor of crime and victimization

Patterns of Crime and Victimization

Based on simple gender categories, it is evident that men commit the largest proportion of all types of crime. According to the 2012 UCR, except for larceny, men constitute 75 percent of arrests for the major felonies. Self-report data confirm this pattern. Men commit the greatest number of crimes and the most serious crimes. When women commit conventional crimes, they are usually petty property offenses, such as larceny (43 percent), forgery or counterfeiting (37 percent), fraud (41 percent), embezzlement (52 percent), and prostitution/commercial vice (68 percent). Men commit the majority of corporate, syndicated, and political crimes. Victimization patterns also indicate that men are most likely violently victimized by other men. There is a large proportion of intergender violent crime—violence by men against women (sexual assault, rape, and violence in the home).

Gender and Varieties of Crime

Unequal relations between men and women have resulted in men controlling the institutional structures of society and, therefore, also controlling women. Women are subservient to men within many of these institutional structures, as is seen in the gender distribution of occupations. Women are primarily employed in low-level service sector jobs—providing for the needs of relatively more powerful men. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2013) women are 91 percent of nurses, 98 percent of prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers, 74 percent of cashiers, 96 percent of secretaries and administrative assistants, 85 percent of bank tellers, and 95 percent of child-care workers. Men are predominantly employed in the higher status occupations that demand more “support” staff. Women only comprise 15 percent of engineers, 24 percent of chief executives, 22 percent of dentists, 34 percent of physicians, and 32 percent of lawyers. Women’s position is this unequal labor market shapes crime patterns. Most female offenders are unemployed or working low-paying menial jobs. Employment instability is also related to women’s criminality.

Most women who embezzle do so out of an obligation to provide for their families, whereas most men who embezzle do so because of what they perceive to be a short-term financial crisis. Women’s embezzlement is most likely “taking from the till,” whereas men’s embezzlement is most likely “manipulating the books.” As women emerge as the fastest growing population in poverty, there are greater levels of involvement in economically motivated crime. The feminization of poverty results from increasing divorce rates and female-headed households (especially when the absent father does not pay child support as required or as needed), gender division of labor (where women are marginalized into lower-paying jobs), lack of adequate childcare, and a welfare system that maintains its recipients below the poverty line. The gender division of labor in corporations segregates women. An “old-boy network” of senior male sponsorship of junior males facilitates greater male involvement in corporate crime. Men’s average gains from such crimes are higher than women’s, and men usually commit their crimes with the help of other men. Women usually work alone. Only 1 percent of women’s white-collar crime is corporate, compared to 14 percent for men. The gender division of labor also facilitates male domination of political crime. In 2013 women accounted for 81 of 435 congressional representatives and 20 of 100 senators (i.e., women are about half the population but hold only 19 percent of congressional seats). Male power networks in both parties inhibits women’s rise. Similarly, the old boy network in criminal syndicates and gangs means powerful positions are filled via homosocial reproduction.

Women tend to be marginal players in street crime. Male street criminals deliberately marginalize women as a means of controlling the streets for themselves, perceiving women to be less authoritarian and trustworthy than they are. Males dominate gangs, in part because parents control their daughters’ time more. Young male criminality is more likely to be collective. Box 9.1 presents findings from Jody Miller’s (2008) Getting Played. Little research has been conducted on violent crimes committed again lower-class African American girls and women. (The little research that does exist explores them as offenders rather than victims.) Black girls and women face widespread gendered violence primarily because public community space is dominated by males who enact a misogynistic and violent “masculine street code.” To cope, girls and women avoid public spaces and stay home. They also rely on the company of others, but this strategy is inhibited by the reality that most victimization is by acquaintances. In schools girls face chronic sexual harassment as understaffed personnel focus on weapons and gangs. One in three of Miller’s interviewees report multiple victimizations, including coercive sex, sexual assault, rape, dating violence, and gang rape.

As Miller’s work suggests, interpersonal violence against women is linked to gender inequality. The United States is a “rape-prone” society: Males dominate politically, economically, and ideologically; and male violence is glorified in popular culture and sport. Rape reflects dominant–subordinate gender relationships. Other forms of inequality exacerbate the pattern. Bourgois (2003) found that marginalized inner-city Puerto Rican men lash out at women and children they cannot support or control. Societies with relative gender equality have lower levels of interpersonal violence, both overall and against women and children. Acts of family violence such as battery, wife rape, and wife killing are linked to patriarchal male authority, and women’s social subordination reinforces male dominance. Husbands killing wives is more common in cities with large gender gaps in college education, unemployment, and annual income. The most common form of child sexual abuse—fathers assaulting and raping daughters—also reflects gendered inequality.

9.3 Race and Crime

Differences in skin color have social significance when used to justify unequal treatment of one group by another. Like class and gender, race relations have developed into inequality. Although whites continue to dominate several racial groups, this section of the chapter focuses on inequality between whites and African Americans due to a paucity of research on other groups.

Patterns of Crime and Victimization

The UCR (2013) reports that whites make up approximately 69 percent of all those arrested for conventional crimes in the United States. African Americans account for 28 percent of arrests, and the remainder are of other races. African Americans account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they account for 39 percent of violent crime arrests and 29 percent of property crime arrests. Economically deprived racial groups are more likely to be involved in and victimized by crime. Most conventional crime is intraracial, and crime victimization is also disproportionately high within Africa-American communities (i.e., people of color victimize other people of color within their own ethnicity). However, there is growing evidence that violence directed by whites against African Americans is increasing (see section 11.1).

Race and Varieties of Crime

Numerous studies show that the overrepresentation of African Americans in conventional crime is the result of racial discrimination, segregation, and concentrated poverty. The relationship between unemployment and crime (see 9.1) helps explain African-American over-involvement in conventional crime. Unemployment of white and black teens was nearly the same in 1954 (14 and 15.4 percent). By 2012, 23 percent of whites aged 16–19 were unemployed, compared to 39 percent for African Americans. African Americans are also more likely to be victims of violent crime. Homicide is the leading cause of death among African-American men aged 15 to 44. African American men are eight times more likely to be murdered than white men are. The street drug trade and weapons traffic are relatively attractive alternatives to the chronic poverty, but the downside is violence. Racial inequality structures substantial conventional crime, both interracial and intraracial. But again, whites account for 70 percent of conventional crime. White males are also the most likely white-collar and political crime perpetrators, an effect of the racial structuring of criminal opportunity. Very few racial minorities are in positions where these activities are possible. According to 2013 data, African Americans hold only 24 percent of executive, administrative, and management positions. In the political realm, the United States has never had an African American vice president. In 2013 only 43 of 435 House seats and one Senate seat were held by African Americans.

Box 9.2 considers the emerging focus on whiteness. Although other disciplines have studied whiteness since the 1990s, only now is criminology starting to analyze the “invisible variable”—a rather striking omission given that whites commit more crime and more serious crimes than do other races. Like other races, whiteness is constructed differently in different times and places. Messerschmidt (2007) argued that Reconstruction era lynching (1865–1877) was a way of “doing a specific type of whiteness.” Race must be understood relationally. Webster (2010), for example, found a hierarchy among “types” of whites, such as “white trash,” “white niggers,” and “new” migrants.

9.4 Age and Crime

Crime is also structured by age insofar as modern society grants rights and privileges based on age, such as the legal age for drinking, smoking, and sexual activity, among other things. Age compounds what has already been demonstrated with respect to the structural impact of class, gender, and race. Age also shapes criminal opportunities.

Patterns of Crime and Victimization

According to 2012 UCR data, conventional crime rises with age and peaks in late adolescence or early adulthood. Arrests for property offenses peak between the ages of 17 and 18, then decline rather quickly; violent crime arrests peak among young adults between the ages of 18 and 22, then decline slowly. Victimization rates for conventional crimes are also structured by age. For example, those aged 12 to 17 have the highest rates of violent victimization, and those over 65 years old have the lowest rates of violent victimization.

Age and Varieties of Crime

Within an increasingly materialistic youth culture, and with reduced labor force participation by youth, there appears to be an increasing level of conventional crime being perpetrated by adolescents. More recent scholarship argues that five major changes mark the transition from late adolescence to early adulthood:

1. Greater access to legitimate sources of material goods and excitement: jobs, credit cards, alcohol, sex, and so forth.

2. Age-framed norms: externally, increased expectations of maturity and responsibility; and internally, anticipation of assuming adult roles, coupled with reduced subjective acceptance of deviant roles and the threat they pose to entering adult status.

3. Peer associations and lifestyle: reduced orientation to same-age/same-sex peers and increased orientation toward persons of the opposite sex and persons who are older or more mature.

4. Increased legal and social costs for deviant behavior.

5. Patterns of illegitimate opportunities that are less risky, more lucrative, and less likely to be reflected in official statistics.

Fundamentally, though, as Greenberg points out, crime can “provide a sense of potency that is expected and desired but not achieved in other spheres of life.” Other scholars (Hirschi and Gottfredson) believe that the age distribution in criminal offending is invariant—that is, youth and young adults commit more crime than others and mature out of it as they age. Greenberg challenges this claim and proves it false by comparing the findings with trends from other countries. Furthermore, the claim of invariant age distribution in criminal offending does not take into consideration types of crimes other than conventional, such as white-collar and political crime. Nor does it consider other factors such as subcultural influences or sexual abuse victimization. Segregation of youth in society and specific institutions generates age-specific crime patterns. The age–crime curve varies by crime type, gender, and class. For example, the crime rate for working-class youth decreases more slowly than that of middle-class youth. Recent research (Sweeten, Piquero, and Steinberg 2013) attributes the age–crime link to the convergence of multiple developmental changes. There is a strong relationship between sexual abuse and delinquency, especially for girls who run away to escape violence. Nearly all school shooters are male; the violence appears to be masculine retaliation against bullying male peers. Age precludes youth involvement in embezzlement, corporate, and political crime. The latter two are committed mostly by those aged 30–60. The increased segregation of elderly shapes crime. Seventy-eight percent of elderly arrests are for larceny, with women and men nearly evenly involved. Elderly larceny rates correlate with adverse economic conditions.

CLASS EXERCISES

1. Place students into small groups (five to seven students per group) and have them work for at least 40 minutes together. They should identify their own demographic location in terms of class, race, gender, and age. Ask them to describe their economic opportunities and aspirations to each other and write them down. Finally, ask them to hypothesize what sorts of crimes they’d be most likely to commit based on their location in the social structure and the probability of “getting away with it.”

2. Ask students to come to class with media representations of masculinities and crime. What sorts of masculinities are being portrayed? What sorts of crime coincide with those masculinities? How do race and class intersect with these masculinities and crime?

3. “Property Crime Bingo” is an effective—and entertaining—way for students to master the various types of property crime. Make a typical bingo card, but rather than numbering the boxes, put the name of a different property crime in each box (e.g., burglary, robbery, employee theft, etc.). The caller then reads out a basic definition of a property crime; students must correctly identify the crime type to mark a box on their card. (Note: This exercise was initially conceived by Alexandra Gerber.) Variation: Use the same card but have the caller read an interesting fact or pattern related to a crime (e.g., “this property crime is typically committed during the day when homeowners are at work,” or “this crime is unlikely to cause injury unless the victim resists,” “this crime involves a network of law enforcement officials, citizens, and street criminals,” etc). As above, the students must correctly identify the crime to mark their boxes.

TEST BANK FOR CHAPTER 9

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. A sociological approach to the study of crime generally includes an examination of

a. individual causes of crime.

b. psychological dispositions.

c. patterns of structural inequality and crime.

d. biological foundations of crime.

2. Social inequalities usually structure the

a. patriotic fervor many people feel.

b. social privileges and opportunities individuals have.

c. economic advantages that some people have.

d. relationship between musical taste and crime.

3. Braithwaite’s review of nearly 300 studies of class and crime found that

a. middle-class adults and juveniles commit those types of crime that are handled by the police at a higher rate than lower-class people.

b. middle-class adults and juveniles commit those types of crime that are handled by the police at a higher rate than upper-class people.

c. upper-class adults and juveniles commit those types of crime that are handled by the police at a higher rate than middle-class people.

d. lower-class adults and juveniles commit those types of crime that are handled by the police at a higher rate than middle-class people.

4. Self-report data indicate that for the lower-class and middle-class patterns of status offenses and general delinquent behavior

a. differences in incidence rates were extreme.

b. differences in prevalence were extreme.

c. differences in prevalence were practically nonexistent.

d. none of the above.

5. The most damaging and dangerous crimes committed in the United States are committed by the

a. lower class.

b. middle class.

c. professional-managerial class.

d. upper class.

6. Most conventional crime is

a. intraclass.

b. interclass.

c. unrelated to class.

d. none of the above.

7. White-collar and political crime patterns of offending and victimization appear to be primarily __________ based.

a. intraclass

b. interclass

c. not classed

d. supraclass

8. Who is most likely to be victimized by crime from all directions?

a. the wealthy

b. the middle class

c. the working class

d. the poor

9. Research has consistently shown that the relationship between unemployment rates and conventional street crime means that

a. as unemployment decreases, companies are making more money and white-collar crime increases.

b. as unemployment increases, conventional crime decreases.

c. even slight increases in unemployment will contribute to higher rates of property and violent crimes.

d. as unemployment increases, the rates of white-collar crime also increase.

10. Which of the following is structured by an “old boy network” that facilitates crime?

a. conventional crimes

b. corporate crime

c. syndicated crime

d. both b and c

11. With perceived inequality in the workplace, some research indicates that workplace crimes are a means to

a. “insult” the employer.

b. “show off” to friends and acquaintances.

c. “get ahead” of the employer.

d. “even the score” with the employer.

12. To succeed in business, executives must pursue profit with a vengeance and overcome many obstacles to success, such as

a. minimizing cost and creating demand for their commodities.

b. controlling and monitoring employees who might steal from them.

c. maximizing costs and marketing their products.

d. marketing their products and hiring fewer people.

13. In a profit-driven society corporations are inherently criminogenic because of the drive for profit making and the

a. expected rate of employee theft.

b. high cost of complying with government regulations.

c. obstacles companies must overcome to be competitive.

d. cut-throat competition from other companies.

14. The state serves the interests of the professional-managerial class because they are the most __________ class.

a. moral and upright

b. well-educated

c. economically powerful

d. politically powerful

15. U.S. foreign policy has supported practices that permit the greatest opportunity for corporations in the United States to invest in other countries. Therefore, revolutionary movements that challenge the status quo are quickly repressed by

a. different agencies within the U.S. government.

b. groups internal to that country and free of outside influence, such as the Contras.

c. groups internal to that country with help from their neighboring countries.

d. antirevolutionary groups external to that country.

16. Gender refers to historically and culturally developed patterns of behavior resulting from relationships between men and women, and gender relations have developed sociologically into __________ relationships between men and women.

a. symbiotic

b. equitable and rewarding

c. unequal

d. conflict-laden

17. Based on the UCR, the NCVS, and self-report studies, __________ are the primary offenders in criminal behavior.

a. men

b. women

c. boys

d. girls

18. What type of crime are women and girls most likely to commit?

a. political crime

b. white-collar crime

c. petty property offenses

d. violent crimes against men

19. What type of society is organized such that men as a group have more power and opportunities than do women?

a. matriarchal

b. patriarchal

c. egalitarian

d. patrilineal

20. Women’s occupational advances appear to be minimal when one considers the 2009 statistics that the vast majority of those employed in

a. professional-managerial and high-status occupations are women of color.

b. professional-managerial and high-status occupations are women.

c. service sector and low-status occupations are women of color.

d. service sector and low-status occupations are women.

21. Who commits most of the political, corporate, and white-collar crime in the United States?

a. African-American men

b. white men

c. young African-American males

d. men and women of Asian descent

22. Men who embezzle are mostly

a. getting even with their employer.

b. taking from the till.

c. manipulating the books.

d. trying to keep women oppressed.

23. Women usually embezzle to

a. fix a temporary financial crisis by “borrowing” from their employer.

b. provide economically for their families.

c. live a lavish lifestyle that indicates their success.

d. make up for the money they would be earning if they were men.

24. Men usually embezzle to

a. fix a temporary financial crisis by “borrowing” from their employer.

b. provide economically for their families.

c. live a lavish lifestyle that indicates their success.

d. make up for the money they would be earning if they were in charge.

25. The feminization of poverty, which results in more women committing economically motivated crimes, exists because

a. the gendered division of labor continues to discriminate against women.

b. there is a lack of adequate childcare.

c. a punitive and minimal welfare system keeps single mothers below the poverty line.

d. all of the above.

26. Why do lower-class African-American women face such high rates of violent crime?

a. Because of high levels of desperation and frustration among poor African Americans.

b. The culture of poverty creates a relative tolerance of violence.

c. The public spaces in their neighborhoods are dominated by men committed to a masculine street code.

d. African-American communities have lower levels of police presence.

27. Which of the following is NOT a strategy used by African-American women to manage the risk of violent victimization?

a. Avoiding public places.

b. Moving to a neighborhood with a higher percentage of affluent African Americans.

c. Relying on the company of others.

d. Staying close to home.

28. What percentage of nurses, prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers, and childcare workers are women?

a. 55 percent

b. 69 percent

c. 83 percent

d. Over 90 percent

29. The study of race and crime is important insofar as people in modern society rely on the use of racial and ethnic bigotry

a. to justify and excuse the ill treatment of large groups of people.

b. to empower minorities through affirmative action programs.

c. to give special treatment to minorities.

d. as a motivation for hate crimes.

30. Which group accounts for approximately 70 percent of arrests according to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)?

a. African Americans

b. Whites

c. Native Americans

d. Italians

31. African Americans are involved in conventional crimes __________ to their representation in the population.

a. positively

b. proportionately

c. disproportionately

d. negatively

32. Which of the following is closely associated with racial and economic disadvantage?

a. Relatively high levels of involvement of Asian- and Italian-Americans in syndicated crime.

b. The overrepresentation of African Americans in conventional crime.

c. The overrepresentation of African Americans in corporate crime.

d. Relatively lower levels of violence against women among poor white males.

33. What type of crime are the elderly most likely to commit?

a. violent crime

b. elder abuse

c. larceny

d. political crime

34. According to statistics presented in the textbook, __________ is the leading cause of death among African American youth.

a. homicide

b. heart disease

c. a job-related accident

d. family violence

35. Which of the following is true regarding the relationship of race and homicide?

a. There is no relationship between race and homicide.

b. Homicide is largely an interracial (black-on-white) crime.

c. African American men are eight times more likely to be murdered than white men are.

d. White men are slightly more likely than other men to commit murder.

36. Researchers refer to a situation that commonly occurs among African Americans, where lower employability increases the chances of criminality and criminality decreases the chances of employability, as

a. An unfortunate reality that can’t be changed.

b. A vicious circle.

c. A never-ending battle for survival.

d. Inevitable, due to their economic status.

37. What might present a relatively more attractive alternative to African American youth, in terms of economic viability?

a. the stock market

b. hotel/motel work

c. fast food service

d. illegal drug trade

38. Violence among African Americans results from the intersection of racial discrimination, segregation, and

a. education level.

b. local context.

c. biological predisposition.

d. economic disadvantage.

39. According to UCR figures, the age distribution of property offense arrest rates peaks between the ages of

a. 10 and 13.

b. 13 and 17.

c. 17 and 18.

d. 20 and 25.

40. According to UCR figures, the age distribution of violent offense arrest rates peaks between the ages of

a. 10 and 13.

b. 13 and 17.

c. 18 and 22.

d. 20 and 25.

41. How are syndicated crime and corporate crime related?

a. Legitimate financial institutions launder money and racketeering inhibits unionization.

b. Syndicated crime networks help launder money embezzled by corporate executives.

c. Syndicated crime networks provide illicit substances and sexual services for corporate executives.

d. Syndicate members transfer corporate bribes to politicians.

42. What did Webster find about the relationship between whiteness and crime?

a. The association of whiteness and crime is not as strong as the association of blackness and crime.

b. Although whites commit the highest amount of crime and the most serious crimes, whiteness is an invisible variable in criminological research and theory.

c. There is a racial hierarchy among whites.

d. Both b and c are correct.

43. Why are adults arrested less frequently than youth for conventional crimes?

a. Biological aging processes tend to inhibit aggression and risk-taking.

b. Law enforcement officials concentrate their activities on youth.

c. Marriage and employment encourage conformity.

d. To protect them from being tried as adults, most gangs require men to leave at age 21.

44. According to Greenberg’s research, lower- and working-class males have less of a chance than other males of fulfilling the traditional gender ideology of working outside the home to support a family, and crime can

a. be a means of expressing resentment and rebellion against the power structure.

b. assuage the guilt they feel for their inability to measure up to the masculine standard.

c. provide a sense of potency that is expected and desired but not achieved in other spheres of life.

d. alleviate the stress they’re feeling as a result of this situation.

45. Hirschi and Gottfredson’s claim that the age distribution in crime is “invariant” has been

a. consistently confirmed by every other researcher.

b. proven false by other researchers.

c. the most enduring true fact of crime since they first studied it.

d. given great consideration by policymakers.

46. What portion of conventional crime is committed by whites?

a. 10 percent

b. 25 percent

c. 33 percent

d. 70 percent

47. The argument that individuals will “mature” out of crime as they grow into adulthood is clearly false when one considers the dominant ages of

a. white-collar crime and political crime offenders.

b. property crime offenders.

c. female offenders.

d. prostitution.

48. A leading factor in conventional crime offending among adolescents is an experience of

a. childhood sexual abuse among girls.

b. childhood sexual abuse among boys and girls.

c. childhood sexual abuse among boys.

d. alcoholic parents.

49. What does the NCVS show regarding the relation between family income and violent victimization?

a. There is almost no relationship between income level and violent victimization.

b. As family income increases, so does the rate of violent victimization.

c. As family income decreases, violent victimization increases.

d. Violent victimization is highest among the richest and the poorest families.

50. Which of the following is associated with high levels of wife killing?

a. A gender gap in college education.

b. High levels of income inequality between women and men.

c. Higher levels of unemployment for women than men.

d. All of the above.

True or False Questions

1. _____ Arrest data, self-report studies, and victimization surveys all show that conventional crimes by adults and youth are disproportionately concentrated in the lower and working classes.

2. _____ White-collar and political crimes are disproportionately committed by working-class and lower-class men.

3. _____ The close association between the state and the economy creates conditions for systematic state crime, such as international political crime, because of the state’s fundamental need to protect a capitalist economy.

4. _____ Women have a virtual monopoly on the commission of syndicated, corporate, and political crimes.

5. _____ When women commit crimes, they engage mostly in petty forms of theft like shoplifting, fraud, minor embezzlement, and prostitution.

6. _____Male violence toward women derives from gender inequality, the structural subordination of women, and the power and dominance of men in U.S. society.

7. _____ Because racial oppression increases disadvantages for whites, especially when hiring preferences are given to minorities, they experience a disproportionate number of economic and social obstacles.

8. _____ The leading cause of death among African-American youth is homicide.

9. _____ Corporate and political crime are dominated by individuals between the ages of 30 and 60.

10. _____ Power inequality within a family can create social positions leading to greater levels of security and safety for youth, which means that strict authoritarian homes will produce the fewest numbers of delinquent children.

11. _____ The feminization of poverty illustrates the growing rate of poverty among single men.

12. _____ Whereas other societies in the world are categorized as rape-prone, the United States is not a rape-prone culture.

13. _____ There appears to be a link between racial inequality and violence for African Americans.

14. _____ Because class, gender, and race are separate categories they are best understood in isolation.

15. _____ Elderly crime consists mostly of petty forms of theft, such as shoplifting.

16. _____ Neighborhoods with a mixture of affluent and disadvantaged African Americans have lower levels of violent crime.

17. _____ Despite the increase in “whiteness” studies in the academy, criminologists have not yet begun to study whiteness and crime.

Essay Questions

1. What is the controversy in criminology regarding age distribution and criminal offending? What does the evidence show?

Required content:

1. The controversy concerns the over-involvement of youth and young adults in conventional crime.
2. Some criminologists think that the age distribution of crime varies with social conditions.
3. Other criminologists think the link between youth and crime is invariant.
4. Cross-cultural and historical research supports the view that social conditions shape the age distribution of crime.

Additional content:

1. Greenberg argues that social conditions shape age and crime.
2. Steffensmeir and Allan argue that social conditions shape age and crime.
3. Hirschi and Gottfredson argue that the link between age and crime is a “brute fact” of criminology.
4. Increased access to work, alcohol, and sex may explain why adults are less involved in conventional crime.
5. The increased social and legal costs of crime may explain why adults are less likely to offend.
6. Age structures criminal opportunities: adults aged 30–60 are more likely to be involved in white-collar crime than youth and young adults are.

2. Race is an important phenomenon when studying crime. What are the overall trends and patterns with respect to race and crime? Who is more likely to commit conventional crime? Who is most likely to commit white-collar, corporate, and political crime? What other social dynamics help explain the racial patterning of crime?

Required content:

1. African Americans are more likely to be involved in conventional property crime.
2. African Americans are more likely to be involved in interpersonal violent crime.
3. Whites are more likely to be involved in white-collar, corporate, and political crime.
4. The over-involvement of African Americans in conventional crime is related to the convergence of racial discrimination, segregation, and concentrated poverty.
5. Whites are more likely to be involved in white-collar, corporate, and political crime because they are much more likely to hold those positions.

Additional content:

1. Only one U.S. senator is African American.
2. Despite the over-involvement of African Americans in conventional crime, whites commit 70 percent of conventional crime.
3. Since 1954 unemployment rates have increased faster for African-American youth than they have for white youth.
4. Neighborhood integration may mitigate the rate of violent crime for African Americans.
5. When we considered whites relationally, we see that marginalized working-class whites are criminalized in ways similar to working-class racial minorities.

3. Gender is an important phenomenon when studying crime. What are the overall trends and patterns with respect to gender and crime? Be sure to address conventional property crime, interpersonal violent crime, white-collar, and political crime in the course of your answer.

Required content:

1. Men are more likely than women to commit all types of crime.
2. Males are usually violently victimized by other males.
3. Women are usually violently victimized by males.
4. Males are more likely to be the victims of violent crime—except for rape.
5. Female offenders are most likely to commit larcenies and be involved in prostitution.

Additional content:

1. Gender may be the best predictor of criminal involvement.
2. Female juvenile offenders are likely to have been sexually abused.
3. Even in mixed-gender gangs, there is gender inequality. Males are more likely to be leaders and to exclude females from serious crime.
4. Gender inequality is related to the fact that males are the overwhelming majority of rapists and perpetrators of family violence.
5. Criminal opportunities show gender dynamics that parallel those of legitimate opportunities: the good old boy network and homosocial reproduction.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

A Dream in Doubt (2007): Documentary film about the murder of Balbir Sodhi in Phoenix, a Sikh man and the first 9/11 “revenge killing” in the United States. Nicely illustrates the complexities of intersectionality in crime, in this case the intertwining of race, religion, immigration, hate crime, and fear of crime.

Lynch, Michael J., E. Britt Patterson, and Kristina K. Childs, eds. 2008. Racial Divide; Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Criminal Justice System. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.

Murder on a Sunday Morning (2009): Documentary film. For information check http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/murder_sunday/.

Poverty in America (2007): Documentary film.

Reiman, Jeffrey, and Paul Leighton. 2010. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice (9th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Streetwise (1984): Documentary of Seattle street kids. Winner of the 1985 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize.