Module 1-5 Quiz questions

The deinstitutionalization of status offenders has received considerable pushback in the past few decades.

False

By the early 2000s, the use of guns had spread from individuals involved in drug transactions to larger numbers of young people, and the availability and use of guns, the spread of the drug market, and the growth of street gangs all contributed to a dramatic rise in murder rates among young people.

True

In the early 1990s, which of these became a major impetus for the development and spread of drug-trafficking street gangs across the United States?

Crack Epidemic

A law violation by a young person is considered an act of juvenile delinquency only if the behavior meets which of these criteria?

All of these

Today, the legal status of “juvenile delinquent” refers to a minor child who has been found to have violated what?

Penal Code

State control over a child’s noncriminal behavior is believed to support and extend which philosophy?

Parens patriae

Youth culture is a unique phenomenon that often values things that are at odd with the wider American culture.

True

The Developmental Life-Course Perspective helps explain what in regards to juvenile delinquency?

All of the above

What actions are only considered illegal for juveniles?

Status offenses

Status offenders frequently come from single-parent homes and often engage in verbal and physical abuse directed toward the parent(s).

True

One reason we treat delinquency different than criminal violations is because we believe most adolescents and teenagers are more salvageable than are adults.

True

Most status offenses develop as a consequence of a particular cycle that often starts with youth blaming their parents for their problems.

True

What type of offender is a noncriminal youth who falls under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court by reason of having engaged in behavior prohibited to minors?

Status

Which of these is NOT an issue that the Developmental Life-Course Theory is concerned with?

The legal basis of juvenile court decisions

The children's rights movement, which encompasses a spectrum of approaches, became popular in the 1970s as a means to compensate for ________.

Young people's lack of rights

The juvenile court may intervene in cases involving dependency and neglect.

True

During the ________ era, the major thrusts were to reassess the soft-line approach to minor offenders and status offenders and to "get tough" on serious and violent juvenile crime.

Social Control and Juvenile Crime

Of the following, which timeframe saw the greatest growth in protections for adolescents?

1960s

Which of the following are social or structural factors that lead to an increase in delinquency during adolescence?

B & C

Developmental life-course theory holds that human development and aging are lifelong processes and that people are rational actors who make informed choices as they go through life.

True

Under parens patriae, the ________ assumed the parental role over juvenile lawbreakers.

State

What term refers to youth who are caught smoking?

Status offender

What current legal status refers to a minor child who has been found to have violated the penal code?

Juvenile delinquent

Rolf Loeber and colleagues identified multiple developmental pathways to a delinquent career. An early ________ pathway consists of a sequence of stubborn behavior, defiance, and authority avoidance.

Authority conflict

According to Loeber and colleagues, an "overt" pathway consists of fighting, aggression, and violence.

True

In the lecture on Best's Telling the Truth About Statistics, what was Dr. McNeal's primary example about the problem with different ways of measuring an outcome?

School shootings

The term "prevalence of delinquency" refers to the frequency with which delinquent behavior occurs.

False

Which of these terms refers to the extent to which a questionnaire or interview yields the same answers from the same juveniles when they are questioned two or more times?

Reliability

Chronic offenders are serious and persistent offenders who are responsible for a small portion of all serious delinquent and criminal behavior.

False

Among young people, the commission of crime is primarily a group activity.

True

Most information about the number of children appearing before the juvenile court each year comes from what publication of the U.S. Department of Justice?

Juvenile Court Statistics

The racial threat hypothesis contends that young males of color are a greater threat than young White males.

False

Which form of crime data collection created by the FBI requires local police agencies to provide at least a brief account of each incident and arrest?

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

Which of the following is a problem associated with the validity of the UCR?

If an offender commits multiple crimes, only the most serious is recorded

The _______ shortcoming in the UCR is addressed by the National Crime Victimization Survey.

Non-reporting issue

Mr. and Mrs. Jones receive a survey that asks them for information about crimes of which they have been victims. They are asked a series of questions to assess whether they individually have been victims of crime but also whether their household has been victimized.

What would be a weakness in the results of the survey being completed by Mr. and Mrs. Jones?

It relies on victims’ memory and honesty

Victimization data reveal that adolescent males are more likely to be victims than are adolescent females and that their victimization is shaped by their gender, race, and social class.

False

Victimization data show that adolescent females are victimized more often than adolescent males and that generally speaking, this victimization is influenced by their gender, race, and ________.

Socioeconomic status

Which of the following is NOT a predictor of chronic offending?

Early sexual experience(s)

Research traditionally has been unable to find a clear relationship between social class and delinquency.

True

UCR data captures all criminal violations.

Flase

Apparent increases in crime rates, according to the UCR, may actually reflect changes in the way the police record their data.

True

Which of the following is NOT a problem associated with the NCVS?

Overreporting because of victim’s misrepresentations of events.

Racial threat theory contends that as the percentage of African Americans in the population increases, so does the amount of social control that the justice system aims at Blacks.

True

The term "incidence of delinquency" refers to the percentage of the juvenile population involved in delinquent behavior.

False

Which cohort study is widely seen as the most useful for studying adolescents and delinquency today?

Monitoring the Future

The term ________ refers to an increase in the frequency and severity of an individual's offenses, an important dimension of delinquency.

Escalation of offenses

The term ________ refers to the extent to which a research instrument measures what it says it measures.

Validity

Based on Best's article, would the following statement be true or false: "big data allows you to know all the facts, while other statistics are approximations."

False

Fred is a 16-year-old who lives in a large metropolitan city. He dropped out of high school; he thought making money at that moment was more important than school. Now, Fred realizes he is stuck at a dead-end job making minimum wage and is tired of working so many hours and making so little money. Fred begins committing burglary in order to supplement his income.

Fred hears on the local news about Senate Bill 101.c, which states that the first conviction for burglary will result in a mandatory 10-year sentence. Out of fear for this punishment, Fred no longer commits burglaries. This is most related to _______.

General deterrence

According to psychologist Terrie Moffit, most young offenders follow one of two paths; adolescent-limited and ______.

Life course persisters

Most twin and adoption studies suggest that delinquency is related to environment.

False

Rational choice theory has its roots in the positivist school of criminology.

False

Rational Choice Theory is closely aligned with deterrence theory.

True

According to the routine activities theory, neighbors are considered capable guardians.

True

Latent trait theorists believe human development is controlled by a master trait present at birth or soon after that results in ______.

An increased propensity to commit crime

According to latent trait theory, the propensity to commit crime is unstable, but the opportunity to commit crime remains stable over time.

False

_______ refers to a crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with crime outweigh its benefits.

General deterrence

Which of these statements supports the developmental theory of desistance?

Identity changes account for reduction or cessation of crime

During the ________ Era, positivism became more widely accepted.

Progressive

The classical model of human nature includes all of the following EXCEPT

Altruism

Developmental Life Course theorists seek to understand why people enter a criminal way of life and, once they do, why they alter the trajectory of their criminal involvement.

True

Which of these individuals would represent the traits of impulsivity, lack of remorse and shame, and manipulativeness?

A sociopath

Problem behavior syndrome include three general types of dysfunctions. Which of the following is not one of them?

Cognitive

Which of these origins of delinquency became more widely accepted with positivists?

Psychological

How do developmental life course theorists view delinquency and criminality?

As a dynamic process

Regardless of gender or environment, those who maintain a latent trait may be predisposed to delinquency or crime and are in danger of becoming career criminals.

True

According to latent trait theory, when does a latent trait appear?

At birth or soon after

The concept behind rational choice theory is that juvenile delinquency or crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the potential offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act.

True

Trevor is a habitual chronic offender. He has committed dozens of robberies and hundreds of burglaries and has stolen approximately 30 vehicles. Trevor was 14 when he arrested for stealing a car and sent to an adult prison until he was 18 years old. There he witnessed assaults and even murders. Oftentimes, he was in fear for his life. Reflecting back on his experiences, Trevor is determined to never again commit a crime that will cause him to end up in prison. What crime control policy is in effect here?

Specific deterrence

One major critique of general deterrence as it relates to rational choice theory is that some offenders, and some crimes, are less "deterrable" than others.

True

The presence of motivated offenders, an absence of guardians, and the availability of suitable targets are the mainstays of which approach?

Routine activities

Life course theorists examine offending patterns and trends. Terrie Moffit describes adolescent-limited offenders as ______.

Typical teenagers

Problem behavior syndrome portrays delinquency and crime as the by-product of other social problems.

False

Which of these did Freud believe was the primitive drive leading to delinquency?

Id

Which of the following would progressives use as a critique of Social Disorganization theory?

All of the above

Which of these terms accurately describes the combination of shared values, trust, and expectations for social intervention to control crime and deviance?

Collective efficacy

According to Sutherland's theory, differential associations affect people's views equally and rarely vary in frequency, duration, priority, and/or intensity.

False

Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory states that ______.

Delinquent and criminal behavior are learned like any other behavior

Most progressives tend to support the cultural deviance perspective; it is the one theory that they rarely critique.

False

Keith, Mike, and Paul feel that they are good at many things, but the standards with which they are judged successful or unsuccessful are unfair. They especially feel this way in school from their teachers and coaches. They are most likely being measured using a _______.

Middle-class measuring rod

Cultural deviance theories view delinquency and crime as an expression of ________ to cultural values and norms that are in opposition to those of the larger society.

Conformity

According to the general theory of crime, being adventuresome, physical, and self-centered are all signs that a person possesses ______.

Low self-control

When members of the lower class are unable to achieve symbols of success via conventional means, they feel anger, frustration, and resentment. These feelings are collectively referred to as _______.

Strain

According to Robert Merton, when adolescents accept the cultural goal but reject the institutional means of attaining it, they may pursue other illegitimate paths in a stage of adaptation called ________.

Innovation

Which of these theories proposes that delinquency results from the frustration individuals feel when they are unable to achieve the goals they desire?

Strain theory

Social control theory suggests that people can only learn techniques and attitudes of delinquency from close relationships with delinquent peers.

False

Which component of Hirschi’s conception of the social bond would concern the perception that rules exist for a reason?

Belief

According to Matza, drift means that the delinquent drifts back and forth between deviancy and ________.

Convention

Drift theory says that delinquent behavior is learned through interactions with others who engage in such behavior, and that the frequency, duration, and intensity of these interactions influence the likelihood of engaging in delinquent behavior.

False

According to containment theory, juveniles who have both strong inner containment and reinforcing external containment are much less likely to become delinquent.

True

Which of the following best describes Hirschi's conception of the social bond?

Connectedness to society

Which of the following issues have been raised regarding the validity of social control theory?

Delinquency may lead to weakened social bonds, not vice versa

What stage of adaptation did Merton refer to when individuals have rejected both the goals of the culture and the institutional means of attaining them?

Retreatism

Cultural deviance theory combines elements of relative deprivation and differential opportunity theories.

False

Cohen argued that delinquent subculture is characterized by short-run hedonism.

True

Cohen’s theory of delinquent subcultures focuses on social conditions that prevent those who are younger who are of a lower economic level from achieving success legitimately. Cohen labels this form of culture conflict _______.

Status frustration

Neutralization theory provides a means of understanding ________.

How delinquents insulate themselves from responsibility for wrongdoing

Tom, Dick, and Harry are three teens from the Columbus, Ohio, area. Using the following information, answer the following questions. The three boys got in trouble for skipping school and for possession of stolen goods. They told their parents that they didn’t want to steal the items, but their friends were doing it and they felt they needed to support their friends. This would most likely be explained by which subcomponent of techniques of neutralization?

Appeal to higher loyalty

Social _______ theory links delinquency and crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics, such as being transient, mixed-use, and socially fraying.

Disorganization