Test Bank

Chapter 7: Sociological Mainstream Theories

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following led to the breakdown of social controls, the rise of criminal traditions, and barriers to the American dream of success?

a. The Civil War

b. The American Revolution

c. The Depression

d. The Civil Rights Movement

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Which term did Émile Durkheim coin to refer to normlessness within society?

a. anomie

b. conflict

c. rebellion

d. strain

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Anomie: Émile Durkheim

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The primary theme of ______ concentrates on learning, socialization, and subcultural transmission of criminal values.

a. anomie

b. social process

c. social control

d. life course

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Anomie: Émile Durkheim

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Social trends in modern urban-industrial societies result in changing norms, confusion, and lessened social control over the individual. This condition creates ______.

a. delinquent sub-cultures

b. drift

c. anomie

d. criminal sub-cultures

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Anomie: Émile Durkheim

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Émile Durkheim’s work on suicide identified several types. Which of the following refers to the self-centered suicide?

a. altruistic

b. egoistic

c. anomic

d. normal

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Anomie: Émile Durkheim

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Which policy would someone who supports anomie theory as an explanation for crime suggest?

a. programs that strengthen the family

b. policies to create greater opportunities

c. neighborhood clean-up

d. eradication of slums

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Merton’s Theory of Anomie

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Merton’s adaptation of anomie became known as ______.

a. personality adaptation theory

b. the general theory of crime

c. differential association theory

d. strain theory

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Merton’s Theory of Anomie

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. A particular student wants to do well in school but never seems to be able to earn higher than a D. In pursuit of academic success, the student begins to cheat on exams. Which form of adaptation in Merton's theory of anomie/strain is this most consistent with?

a. conformity

b. innovation

c. rebellion

d. retreatism

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Modes of Personality Adaptation

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Even though Johnny realizes that he will never reach the economic and occupational success of which he once dreamed, he continues to go to work each day and diligently completes the tasks assigned to him. Which form of adaptation in Merton's theory of anomie/strain is this most consistent with?

a. conformity

b. innovation

c. retreatism

d. ritualism

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Modes of Personality Adaptation

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Which of the modes of personality accepts the goal of success in society and the societally approved means of achieving this status?

a. conformist

b. innovator

c. retreatist

d. rebel

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Modes of Personality Adaptation

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Which of the following modes of personality accepts the goal of success but rejects or sees illegitimate alternatives to the means of achieving these aims?

a. conformist

b. innovator

c. retreatist

d. rebel

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Modes of Personality Adaptation

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. Which of the following modes of personality is illustrated by the mindless bureaucrat who becomes caught up in the riles and means to an end that he or she forgets or fails to place proper significance on the goal?

a. conformist

b. innovator

c. ritualist

d. rebel

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Modes of Personality Adaptation

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Which of the following modes of personality represents a rejection of both societally approved means and ends?

a. retreatist

b. innovator

c. ritualist

d. rebel

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Modes of Personality Adaptation

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Which of the following modes of personality rejects both means and goals, and seeks to substitute alterative ones that would represent new societal goals as well as new methods of achieving them?

a. retreatist

b. innovator

c. ritualist

d. rebel

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Modes of Personality Adaptation

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Which of the following theorists is credited with general strain theory, in which it was acknowledged that strain can result from a variety of negative relationships or experiences?

a. Émile Durkheim

b. Albert Cohen

c. Robert Agnew

d. Robert Merton

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST)

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. The “institutional anomie theory” attributes crime to the ______.

a. American Dream

b. normlessness that results from social change

c. rejection of middle-class values

d. weakening of social bonds

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST)

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. According to Cohen’s ______ theory, delinquency is a lower-class reaction to middle-class values.

a. lower-class reaction

b. strain

c. anomie

d. delinquent subculture

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cohen’s Lower-Class Reaction Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Generally speaking, differential opportunity theories focus on crime as the result of ______.

a. social disorganization

b. natural processes of maturation

c. lack of legitimate opportunities

d. weak social controls

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cloward and Ohlin’s Differential Opportunity Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

19. Which of the following pairs of criminologists is most strongly associated with helping us understand that forms of adaptation depend upon the availability of illegitimate opportunities to commit crime?

a. Shaw and McKay

b. Sampson and Laub

c. Cloward and Ohlin

d. Gottfredson and Hirschi

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Cloward and Ohlin’s Differential Opportunity Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

20. According to Cloward and Ohlin, which type of criminal subculture does “double-failures” enter?

a. rebels

b. criminal

c. retreatist

d. conflict

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Delinquent Subcultures

Difficulty Level: Easy

21. Which of the following delinquent subcultures occurs in stable neighborhoods in which a hierarchy of available criminal opportunities exists?

a. criminal

b. conflict

c. retreatist

d. rebel

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Delinquent Subcultures

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. Disorganized areas are characterized by a ______ subculture.

a. criminal

b. conflict

c. retreatist

d. rebel

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Delinquent Subcultures

Difficulty Level: Easy

23. Which of the following is the “Chicago School” associated with?

a. biological positivism

b. urban ecology

c. social control

d. theories of strain

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Chicago School

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. In their study of urban ecology, in which zone did Shaw and McKay find the highest crime rate?

a. Zone I—economic center

b. Zone II—zone of transition

c. Zone III—industry and working people’s homes

d. Zone IV—better residential areas

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

25. Which theoretical tradition is Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory a part of?

a. anomie

b. social process

c. social control

d. life course

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

26. A problem in which group rates are used in order to describe individual behavior is referred to as ______.

a. dualistic fallacy

b. ecological fallacy

c. strain

d. anomie

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

27. A critique of social disorganization theory is that some of the studies tend to use group rates to explain individual crime. Aggregate statistics do not yield accurate estimates if the intended unit of analysis is the behavior of individuals. Consequently, researchers have committed a/an ______ fallacy.

a. global

b. human

c. dualistic

d. ecological

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: A Critique of Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. An individual increases their risk of being a victim of crime by leaving for work each day at the same time, driving the same route to and from work, and returning at the same time with no variation. The crime that results would be attributed to the ______ theory.

a. social disorganization

b. routine activities

c. differential association

d. differential opportunity

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Routine Activities Approach

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. Which of the following proposes that the probability of crime varies by time, place, and social setting?

a. routine activities approach

b. social disorganization theory

c. strain theory

d. lifestyle exposure theory

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Routine Activities Approach

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. Stark identified all of the following aspects of high-deviance areas except ______.

a. density

b. poverty

c. transience

d. development

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Routine Activities Approach

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. According to Stark, density is associated with all of the following except ______.

a. higher moral cynicism

b. overcrowding

c. family conflict

d. outdoor gatherings

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Routine Activities Approach

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. Which of the following theories indicates that individuals become predisposed toward criminality because of an excess of contacts that advocate criminal behavior?

a. routine activities approach

b. differential association theory

c. social disorganization theory

d. social bond theory

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. Miller’s theory of crime that reflects an overemphasis on lower-class values is known as ______.

a. social disorganization

b. differential association

c. focal concerns

d. social bond

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Miller’s Focal Concerns Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. The idea that delinquents exist “in a limbo between convention and crime” is consistent with which of the following theories?

a. techniques of neutralization

b. focal concerns theory

c. social bond theory

d. drift theory

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Matza’s Delinquency and Drift Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. ______ theories indicate that certain forces have an influence, but do not determine behavior.

a. focal concerns

b. delinquency

c. drift

d. soft determinism

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Matza’s Delinquency and Drift Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

36. A group of juveniles who attend a district school commit an act of vandalism against a neighboring school district, explaining that it was necessary to defend their own mascot. This is an example of ______.

a. denial of responsibility

b. denial of harm

c. condemning the condemners

d. appeal to a higher authority

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Techniques of Neutralization

Difficulty Level: Medium

37. An offender arrested for drug use states, “But I’m not hurting anyone else.” This is reflective of ______.

a. denial of victim

b. condemnation of the condemners

c. denial of responsibility

d. denial of harm

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Techniques of Neutralization

Difficulty Level: Easy

38. According to containment theory, which of the following would the internalization of conventional behavior constitute?

a. inner pressure

b. outer pressure

c. inner containment

d. outer containment

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Containments

Difficulty Level: Medium

39. An individual commits a crime because he has “nothing to lose.” Which of the following social bonds does this indicate a lack of?

a. attachment

b. belief

c. commitment

d. involvement

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Which of the following refers to a bond to others, such as family and peers?

a. attachment

b. belief

c. commitment

d. involvement

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

41. An individual commits a crime because he has “nothing better to do with his time.” Which of the following social bonds does this indicate a lack of?

a. attachment

b. belief

c. commitment

d. involvement

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

42. Which of the following theories is the proposal that crime is rooted in low self-control and the pursuit of self-interest consistent with?

a. anomie

b. containment

c. focal concerns

d. general theory of crime

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime

Difficulty Level: Medium

43. How does power control theory explain the gender difference in criminality?

a. Boys are exposed to fewer parental controls.

b. Boys have a greater desire for power and control.

c. Girls have stronger internal containments.

d. Girls have stronger social bonds.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: John Hagan’s Power-Control Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

44. According to theorist David Farrington, what do situational and motivating factors contribute to?

a. long-term anti-social potential

b. short-term anti-social potential

c. social disorganization

d. techniques of neutralization

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Summarize how criminality changes over the life course.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Farrington’s Antisocial Potential (AP) Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

True / False

1. In early criminological theories, the unit of analysis was the individual criminal.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. According to anomie/strain theory, individuals who accept traditional goals but reject the accepted means of achieving them are known as retreatists.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Anomie Theories

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. According to Émile Durkheim, the development of modern urban-industrial societies has resulted in changing norms, confusion, and lessened social control over the individual.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Anomie: Émile Durkheim

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Émile Durkheim insisted on primacy of groups and social organizations in understanding human behavior.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Anomie: Émile Durkheim

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. A moral confusion or breakdown in mores or a gap between goals and means in society is referred to as strain.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Anomie: Émile Durkheim

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. One weakness of Merton’s theory of anomie/strain is that it does not provide a good explanation for economic crimes.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Merton’s Theory of Anomie

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Durkheim viewed anomie as a condition that occurs when discrepancies exist between societal goals and the means available for their achievement.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Merton’s Theory of Anomie

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Merton’s theory appears to dwell on lower-class criminality, thus failing to consider law breaking among the elite.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: A Critique of Merton’s Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. According to Robert Merton, if a person experiences a form of strain and responds with negative emotionality without having good coping resources, they are more likely than others to engage in crime.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST)

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. General Strain Theory views strain as a more general phenomenon than the discrepancy between aspirations and expectations.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST)

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. Strain may prevent one from achieving positively valued goals.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST)

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Theories that view the type of crime as owing to various forms of delinquent subcultures are referred to as general strain theories.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Subcultural Theories

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Maliciousness is expressed in a general disdain for middle-class values or objects and a negative reaction to such values.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cohen’s Lower-Class Reaction Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. Albert Cohen suggested that lower-class delinquency is shaped by the availability of both illegitimate and legitimate opportunities.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cohen’s Lower-Class Reaction Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. Cohen viewed lower-class delinquency as nonutilitarian, malicious, and negativistic.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cohen’s Lower-Class Reaction Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. Cloward and Ohlin’s primary contribution to the field of criminology was their basic premise that some crime can be attributed to social disorganization.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cloward and Ohlin’s Differential Opportunity Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

17. According to Cloward and Ohlin’s differential opportunity theory, retreatist subcultures develop in stable slum neighborhoods in which a hierarchy of available criminal opportunities exists.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cloward and Ohlin’s Differential Opportunity Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. According to the routine activities theory, working-class juveniles will choose one or another type of subcultural (gang) adjustment to their anomic situation depending on the availability of illegitimate opportunity structures in their neighborhood.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cloward and Ohlin’s Differential Opportunity Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

19. The victim subculture occurs in stable neighborhoods in which a hierarchy of available criminal opportunities exists.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Delinquent Subcultures

Difficulty Level: Easy

20. The “Chicago School” was well-known for its armchair theorizing; few of its researchers ever ventured into the field.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Chicago School

Difficulty Level: Easy

21. Urban ecology views the city as a growing organism.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Human Ecology

Difficulty Level: Easy

22. According to Park, natural areas are subcommunities that emerge to serve specific, specialized functions.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Human Ecology

Difficulty Level: Easy

23. The study of the interrelationship between human organisms and the physical environment is known as human ecology.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Human Ecology

Difficulty Level: Easy

24. The dualistic fallacy is a problem in which group rates are used to describe individual behavior.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

25. Shaw and McKay made extensive use of maps and official statistics in their studies of juvenile delinquency.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. Social disorganization theory posits that crime is due to social disorganization and social breakdown of an area.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

27. The looking-glass self is Cooley’s theory of personality as a perceived perception of the reaction of others.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

28. One weakness of Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory is that he failed to account for the fact that not all associations are equal in intensity, frequency, duration, and priority.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association

Difficulty Level: Easy

29. Differential association theory is a behavioristic theory.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association

Difficulty Level: Easy

30. One weakness of Miller’s theory of “focal concerns” is that it fails to explain middle- and upper-class criminal behavior.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Miller’s Focal Concerns Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

31. Delinquency and drift are an example of hard determinism.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Matza’s Delinquency and Drift Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

32. Techniques of neutralization refer to rationalizations or excuses that juveniles use to neutralize responsibility for deviant actions.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Techniques of Neutralization

Difficulty Level: Easy

33. Social process theories address the issue of how society maintains or elicits social control and the manner in which it obtains conformity or fails to obtain it in the form of deviance.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Social Control Theories

Difficulty Level: Easy

34. Social control theory holds that individuals have various social controls that assist them in resisting pressures that draw them toward criminality.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Reckless’s Containment Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

35. Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime is best characterized as outlining the inner and outer pushes and pulls that influence a person’s likelihood of criminality.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime

Difficulty Level: Easy

36. General theory of crime, developed by Gottfredson and Hirschi, commits a global fallacy in its efforts to explain crime as “low self-control” in pursuit of “self-interest.”

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime

Difficulty Level: Easy

37. Antisocial potential posits that relatively few people have high potential to commit antisocial acts.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Summarize how criminality changes over the life course.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Farrington’s Antisocial Potential (AP) Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

Short Answer

1. According to Robert Merton’s theory of anomie/strain, what causes strain?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Merton’s Theory of Anomie

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. List and explain two forms of adaptation from Merton’s theory of anomie/strain.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Merton’s Theory of Anomie

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. List one reason that individuals would engage in crime according to general strain theory.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST)

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Identify some of the values that are held by middle-class individuals, according to Cohen.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cohen’s Lower-Class Reaction Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Identify and describe the three types of illegitimate juvenile subcultures identified by Cloward and Ohlin?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Delinquent Subcultures

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. What is double-failure?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Delinquent Subcultures

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. What is “The Chicago School”?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Chicago School

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. What was the premise of social disorganization theory?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Identify the five aspects of high-deviance areas proposed by Stark (1987).

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Routine Activities Approach

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Identify and describe three of the lower-class focal concerns proposed by Walter Miller.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Miller’s Focal Concerns Theory

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. What does lower-class reaction theory, created by Albert Cohen, postulate?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Miller’s Focal Concerns Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Identify and explain two techniques of neutralization.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Techniques of Neutralization

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Identify and explain two of the four elements of social bond.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. Compare and contrast Merton’s theory of anomie/strain to Agnew’s general strain theory. How are the two alike? How are they different?

Agnew views strain as owing to negative relationships in which individuals feel that they are being mistreated. These negative relationships may take a variety of forms: others preventing the achievement of goals such as monetary success; activities that threaten to remove valued relationships such as the loss or death of a significant other; and the threat of negatively valued stimuli such as insults or physical assault. For some, such activities increase the likelihood for anger and frustration, as well as the likelihood that crime becomes a means of resolving these emotions. Agnew (1992, 1994) has revised traditional anomie (strain) theory by going beyond Merton’s presumed economic strain and identifying other sources of strain. His General Strain Theory (GST) views strain as a more general phenomenon than the discrepancy between aspirations and expectations. Strain can also take place when others take something of value from us or when one is confronted with negative circumstances.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Anomie Theories

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Critique anomie theory, including a discussion of Merton, Cohen, and Cloward and Ohlin’s theories.

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Define anomie and discuss how it is used in various sociological theories to describe causes of crime.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Anomie Theories

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Explain Sutherland’s theory of differential association. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this theory as an explanation of crime?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Provide examples of social process theories and criminality as a learned or culturally transmitted process.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Identify the four elements of social bond according to Travis Hirschi’s theory. Provide examples of each type of bond. Finally, consider the policy implications of this theory—how might society work to strengthen each of the four bonds?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Explain power-control theory. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this theory as an explanation of crime?

KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Discuss how society maintains or elicits social control and criminality as deviance within the context of social control theories.

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: John Hagan’s Power-Control Theory

Difficulty Level: Hard

6. Compare and contrast social process and social control theories of crime. How are these schools of thought alike? How are they different?

Social control theories address the issue of how society maintains or elicits social control and the manner in which it obtains conformity or fails to obtain it in the form of deviance.

KEY: Learning Objective: Various

REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Various

Difficulty Level: Hard