Walsh Ch.9 Exam Questions The Law And Social Control

CHAPTER 9

THE LAW AND SOCIAL CONTROL

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Social control:

a. requires that members of the society be conscious of its purpose

b. is restricted to supervision and restraint

c. is any action, either deliberate or unconscious, that influences conduct toward conformity, whether or not the persons being influenced are aware of the process

d. is maintained exclusively and most powerfully by the law

2. What type of control is exemplified by the effect of a police officer-the uniformed symbol of law and control-on the behavior of those who are aware of the officer's presence?

a. informal

b. direct

c. indirect

d. peer

3. Which kind of social control depends on whether we value the opinions and affections of others and on our range of significant others?

a. formal

b. informal

c. direct

d. indirect

4. Donald Black’s (1976) position on the relationship between formal and informal social control is that:

a. as law breaks down, social control is exercised by formal means

b. as informal controls weaken, increasing reliance is placed on formal legal controls

c. there is no relationship between the two

d. formal law is indirect, and informal law is direct

5. When people violate the rules of acceptable behavior, they usually feel guilty in ______________ to the level of disapproval attached to the violation.

a. examination

b. contrast

c. relation

d. proportion

6. What refers to the effect of the imposed punishment on the future behavior of the person who is punished?

a. specific deterrence

b. general deterrence

c. specific incarceration

d. general incarceration

7. The term general deterrence refers to:

a. the rehabilitative effect on the individual being punished

b. the preventative effect on the person being punished

c. the preventative effect on those who have witnessed but do not personally experienced punishment

d. the deterrent effect of conscience and stigma on the person being punished

8. The point of Plato’s allegory about the ring of Gyges is that:

a. specific deterrence does not work

b. most of us would commit crimes if guaranteed we would never be discovered

c. indirect/informal social control is best

d. none of us would commit crimes even if guaranteed we would never be discovered

9. Which justification for punishment is exemplified by the "eye for an eye" concept?

a. deterrence

b. reintegration

c. incapacitation

d. retribution

10. Which philosophy of punishment refers to the inability of incarcerated criminals to victimize people outside of prison walls?

a. retribution

b. rehabilitation

c. reintegration

d. incapacitation

11. Which philosophy of punishment means to restore or return to constructive or healthy activity?

a. retribution

b. rehabilitation

c. deterrence

d. incapacitation

12. Which philosophy of punishment is more concrete and pragmatic, focusing on concrete programs such as job training rather than on psychological attitude change?

a. incapacitation

b. reintegration

c. rehabilitation

d. retribution

13. Which of Black's (1976) styles of social control involve some breach of obligation resulting in an accused debtor and an alleged victim?

a. conciliatory

b. compensatory

c. penal

d. therapeutic

14. Which philosophy of punishment views offenders as free agents whose humanity we affirm by holding them accountable?

a. rehabilitation

b. deterrence

c. incapacitation

d. retribution

15. Which of Black’s (1976) styles of social control is one in which a person's unacceptable conduct is considered "sick" and in need of treatment?

a. therapeutic

b. penal

c. conciliatory

d. compensatory

16. Which of Black's (1976) styles of social control assigns blame to individuals for their actions and punishes them accordingly?

a. compensatory

b. conciliatory

c. therapeutic

d. penal

17. The law assumes rational individuals engage in ______________ ("How will I benefit from this behavior, and what might it cost me?") before they act.

a. cost-benefit analysis

b. therapeutic decision-making

c. conciliatory pros and cons

d. probabilities

18. What is defined as pleading guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence?

a. confessing

b. pledging

c. plea bargaining

d. charge bargaining

19. In Bordenkircher v. Hayes, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of:

a. threatening to imprison a defendant if they refuse to bargain

b. threatening defendants with dire consequences if they refuse to bargain

c. imposing life sentences on defendants who refuse to plea bargain

d. both a and c

20. What ultimate form of social control remains highly popular with the American public today?

a. incarceration for life

b. death penalty

c. incarceration

d. probation

21. Support for the death penalty goes up and down with:

a. governmental support

b. societal movements

c. cultural growth

d. crime rates

22. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court decide that the death penalty per se was not unconstitutional but that the arbitrary and discriminatory way in which it was imposed did violate the Eighth Amendment?

a. Woodson v. North Carolina

b. Gregg v. Georgia

c. Roper v. Simmons

d. Furman v. Georgia

23. The first step to the bifurcated death penalty hearing process is to:

a. charge the defendant

b. impose the sentence

c. carry out the sentence

d. determine guilt

24. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court uphold the constitutionality of the bifurcated hearing?

a. Gregg v. Georgia

b. Woodson v. North Carolina

c. Coker v. Georgia

d. Penry v. Lynaugh

25. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court allow the imposition of the death penalty on the mentally retarded?

a. Coker v. Georgia

b. Penry v. Lynaugh

c. Woodson v. North Carolina

d. Gregg v. Georgia

26. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court reverse itself in the matter of executing juveniles?

a. Roper v. Simmons

b. Atkins v. Virginia

c. Baze and Bowling v. Rees

d. Stanford v. Kentucky

27. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court conclude that the overwhelming disapproval of the world community must be considered a relevant factor (although not a controlling one) in determining the imposition of capital punishment on mentally retarded individuals?

a. Stanford v. Kentucky

b. Baze and Bowling v. Rees

c. Roper v. Simmons

d. Atkins v. Virginia

28. The death penalty is carried out relatively ___________ in the United States today.

a. rarely

b. frequently

c. often

d. suddenly

29. Opponents of capital punishment view the death penalty as a ______________ that the United States shares with such countries as China and Iran.

a. sin

b. moral repugnant issue

c. decency issue

d. barbaric anachronism

30. Death penalty abolitionists argue that executions may "cause" a slight rise in the homicide rate due to the:

a. homicide effect

b. prosecution effect

c. brutalization effect

d. murder effect

31. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court move in the direction of placing limits on death penalty appeals?

a. Coleman v. Thompson

b. McKlesky v. Kemp

c. Brown v. Board of Education

d. Kansas v. Hendricks

32. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court rule that statistical aggregates of racial bias do not per se establish a violation of the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendments in individual death penalty cases.

a. Brown v. Board of Education

b. Coleman v. Thompson

c. Kansas v. Hendricks

d. McKlesky v. Kemp

33. Proponents of capital punishment argue that ______________ (given similarly situated defendants, of course) should be achieved by imposing more death sentences, not by imposing the death penalty on no one.

a. declining crime rates

b. reduction of recidivism

c. equity in sentencing

d. stopping political dissent

34. A government's need to control extremes of ______________ is even more important than its need to control crime.

a. mental illness

b. sentencing inequity

c. crime recidivism

d. political dissent

35. A more welcome method of destroying the appeal of threatening political third parties is to:

a. pass laws against their activities

b. employ “dirty tricks” to discredit them

c. use the Supreme Court to declare them illegal

d. co-opt what is most appealing about their political platforms

36. Some have expressed the fear that passage of the ______________ on October 11, 2001, in response to the horrendous terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is the beginning of the end of American civil liberties.

a. USA Protection Act

b. USA Privacy Act

c. USA Patriot Act

d. USA Control Act

37. Psychiatry and its concepts of mental health and mental illness are potential means of achieving ______________ in conjunction with the legal system.

a. therapy

b. social control

c. compensation

d. justice

38. The former Soviet Union made widespread use of psychiatric labeling to justify locking up ______________ in mental hospitals.

a. sex offenders

b. bigamists

c. mentally ill

d. dissidents

39. In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court uphold a statute aimed at keeping certain sex offenders behind bars under civil commitment laws after they have served their prison terms if they demonstrated "mental abnormality" or "personality disorder"?

a. Holman v. Gaston

b. Missouri v. Jenkins

c. Hemmens v. Walsh

d. Kansas v. Hendricks

40. In what case did the U.S. Supreme Court rule that it is permissible to double property taxes in order to build “magnet schools” to attract white students back to the inner city and combat "white flight" to the suburbs?

a. Holman v. Gaston

b. Missouri v. Jenkins

c. Hemmens v. Walsh

d. Kansas v. Hendricks

TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS

1. If law has one overriding function, it is social control.
2. The primary function of law is to denote restriction and supervision.
3. Law is a much broader concept than law.
4. Social control is a mark of a democratic society.
5. Direct control is persuasive.
6. Indirect control is coercive.
7. People prevented from illegal behavior only by the threat of the police officer is indirect control.
8. Direct control is exemplified by the effect of a police officer.
9. Internalized rules that provide us with a self-regulating thermostat is a conscience.
10. As formal controls exercised by the family, church, school, and neighborhood weakens, increasing reliance is placed on informal legal controls.
11. As informal controls prove inadequate, our vices are more likely to be censored by more formal means.
12. Indirect and formal control create five separate social control mechanisms.
13. General deterrence it the effect of the imposed punishment on the future behavior of the person who is punished.
14. Adultery is still a crime that can carry the possibility of imprisonment in 21 states.
15. Deterrence can either be specific or general.
16. The difference between the circumstances of punishment and the offender’s usual life is the contrast effect.
17. Our moral conscience and not the threat of punishment keeps us from committing criminal acts.
18. The United States has one lawyer for every 245 people.
19. Legal scholars have identified 5 other major objections/justifications for punishing criminals besides deterrence.
20. Restorative is the justification of punishment exemplified by the “eye for an eye” concept.
21. Retribution is the most honestly stated justification for punishment.
22. Retributive punishment is “an affirmation of the autonomy, responsibility and dignity of the individual”.
23. Incapacitation refers to the inability of incarcerated criminals to victimize people outside of the prison walls.
24. Rehabilitation means to restore or return to constructive or healthy activity.
25. Compensatory is one of the four legal “styles” of social control.
26. The penal style of social control assigns blame to individuals for their actions.
27. Plea bargaining is pleading guilty for a lighter sentence.
28. Favors of capital punishment view the death penalty as a barbaric anachronism.
29. The death penalty deters.
30. The criminal justice system’s reason for being is to exert social control.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. How did Black explain the relationship between formal and informal control and how is it demonstrated in the juvenile justice system?
2. Outline and explain Black’s legal styles of social control.
3. Choose one philosophy of punishment discussed in the text. Fully explain this philosophy.
4. Choose a side (pro or con) in regards to capital punishment and use evidence from the chapter to support your position.
5. Fully explain how the law and psychiatry have impacted social control.