Delinquency Midterm

Which conception of delinquency works from the premise that “behaviors or conditions are not inherently delinquent, but they become so once society determines that they are delinquent”?

A. Normative

B. social constructionist

C. critical

D. Psychological

social constructionist

Which of the following is not an example of a status offense?

A. Petty theft

B. Underage drinking

C. Truancy

D. Incorrigibility

petty theft

Which English Common Law concept refers to the ability to intend an “act of wrong doing”?

A. Parens Patriae

B. Ex Parte Nombre

C. Mens Rea

D. In Re Crimen

mens rea

The juvenile court was established during the child-saving era in response to which ideology?

A. Punitive

B. Rehabilitation 

C. Normative

D. Criminological

rehabilitation

A news story that drugs were found in a elementary student’s locker was run in the national media. Schools around the country suspend hundreds of 8 year old students on the suspicion that they are bringing drugs to school. No additional drugs are ever found. This would be an example of…

A. An appropriate reaction

B. An epidemic of drug use in schools

C. A cry for help from the nation’s schools

D. A moral panic over drugs in schools

moral panic over drugs in schools

Which moral entrepreneur is described by Goode and Ben-Yehuda (2006) as the “personification of evil”?

A. The press

B. Folk devils

C. The public

D. Law enforcement

folk devils

Which data source is ideal for calculating the amount of unreported crime?

A. NIBRS

B. Self-report surveys

C. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

D. In-depth interviews of criminals

NCVS

Which type of reasoning in research starts from a theoretical premise and tests a hypothesis based on that theory?

A. Inductive

B. Deductive

deductive

Turanovic’s (2019) study “Victimization and Desistance from Crime” is an example of which type of study?

A. Quantitative

B. Qualitative

quantitative

What was Turanovic’s (2019) dependent variable?

A. Victimization

B. Deviant Peer Affiliations

C. Race

D. Criminal offending

criminal offending

Which of the following components of deterrence theory has received the most empirical support?

A. Certainty of punishment

B. Swiftness of Punishment

C. Severity of punishment

D. Morality of punishment

certainty of punishment

Which criminological theory involves individuals making self-interested and agentic decisions about offending based on a calculation that minimizes pain and maximizes pleasure?

A. Differential Association Theory

B. Social Bond Theory

C. Rational Choice Theory

D. General Strain Theory

rational choice theory

Which of the following is an example of a positive punishment?

A. Taking away a child’s Xbox as a result of bad grades

B. Placing an individual in a cell for 23 hours a day as a result of mouthing off a prison guard

C. Students withdrawing their friendship from a teacher’s pet

D. Playing an irritating noise every time your study partner gives you a wrong answer

playing an irritating noise every time your study partner gives you a wrong answer

A student gets a zero on a paper after the professor catches them using AI. The student excuses their behavior by saying “everyone, even professors, use AI.” This excuse is best exemplified by which technique of neutralization?

A. Denial of responsibility

B. Appeal to higher loyalties

C. Condemnation of condemners

D. Denial of victim

condemnation of condemners

According to Hirschi (1969), which of the following components of a social bond is the moral component?

A. Attachment

B. Involvement

C. Commitment

D. Belief

belief

Derrick spends nearly every afternoon and weekend at soccer practice or studying. He says he’s “too busy” to get into trouble even if he wanted to. Which social bond element is this?

A. Involvement

B. Commitment

C. Attachment

D. Belief

involvement

David at age 18 is stealing cars, while Drew, also 18, is preparing to start college. At age 28, David has a major alcohol issue and struggles to maintain a job but largely abstains from crime. Drew (now 28) was recently promoted at his engineering job that he has held since graduating college at age 22. This is an example of which concept from self-control theory?

A. Low self-control

B. Strain

C. Attachment

D. Rank-order stability

rank order stability

According to Differential Association Theory, people are more likely to engage in crime when:

A. They are born with a biological predisposition toward delinquency

B. They experience strain and frustration from blocked opportunities

C. They have learned an excess of definitions favorable to law violation

D. They lack attachment to parents and teachers

they have learned an excess of definitions favorable to law violation

Sofia’s older brother regularly teaches her how to break into cars and praises her when she participates. What does this example illustrate?

A. imitation and reinforcement

B. learning through interaction with intimate groups or individuals

C. weak social bonds

D. strain due to blocked goals

learning through interaction with intimate groups or individuals

According to Akers’ Social Learning Theory, criminal behavior is most likely to occur when:

A. A person is biologically predisposed to aggression

B. A person experiences strain from blocked opportunities

C. A person imitates others, receives reinforcement for crime, and learns definitions favorable to law violation

D. A person has weak attachment, commitments, involvement, and beliefs

a person imitates others, receives reinforcement for crime, and learns definitions favorable to law violation

In Durkheim’s Anomie Theory, anomie tends to occur in which type of society?

A. Mechanical 

B. Natural

C. Organic

D. Moralistic

organic

Merton believed that anomie was a result of unregulated desires. According to Merton’s classic strain theory, people had to be pushed into crime and antisocial behavior as people are inherently prosocial. What pushes people into crime?

A. Culture

B. Social structure

C. Class system

D. Socialism

social structure

In Merton’s classic strain theory, which adaptation to strain leads to crime?

A. Rebellion

B. Conformity

C. Innovation

D. Ritualism

innovation

Cloward and Ohlin in Differential Opportunity Theory argue that illegitimate means to culturally accepted goals are also not equally distributed in the population. Delinquent subcultures arise around this uneven distribution of illegitimate means. Which type of delinquent subculture is characterized by illicit drug use?

A. criminal delinquent subcultures

B. conflict delinquent subcultures

C. gang delinquent subcultures

D. retreatist delinquent subcultures

retreatist delinquent subcultures

A habitual shoplifter begins to reduce the frequency of her shoplifting after her fiance threatens to call of their marriage if the behavior continues. She completely ceases her shoplifting behavior after getting married. Marriage in this case is a ___.

A. trajectory

B. turning point

C. snare

D. technique of neutralization

turning point

Theresa (age 17) is caught drinking at school and is suspended. Due to a lack of supervision, she is later caught stealing from a nearby store and arrested. However, she steals more than $1000, as a result she is tried as an adult and receives a felony conviction. As a result, she struggles to get into college or find a job and engages in more crime to make ends meet. She used to be on adolescence-limited offending trajectory but now finds herself on a life-course persistent trajectory. The school suspension, arrest, and felony conviction serve as a ___.

A. turning point

B. trajectory

C. cumulative build up of snares

D. low stake in conformity

cumulative build up of snares

Which of the following is NOT a type of strain in General Strain Theory?

A. failure to achieve a valued goal

B. loss of a valued relationship

C. presentation of noxious stimuli

D. all of the above

all of the above

Nick failed to get an A in his criminology class. As a result, he did not make the dean’s list. He coped by withdrawing and playing video games the entirety of the next weekend. Which type of coping does this best represent?

A. emotional

B. behavioral

C. cognitive

D. moral

behavioral

Maria is a 16 year old student who recently failed several classes despite studying hard. At home, she faces constant arguments with her parents, and at school, she is frequently bullied. Feeling angry and hopeless, Maria begins skipping school and stealing money from local stores. According to Agnew’s General Strain Theory, which type of strain best explains Maria’s delinquent behavior?

A. failure to achieve positively valued goals

B. presentation of negative stimuli

C. removal of positive stimuli

D. lack of social bonds

failure to achieve positively valued goals

According to Sampson and Laub’s Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control, what best explains why some offenders desist from crime in adulthood?

A. Desistance is solely the result of biological maturity and aging out of crime. 

B. Desistance occurs when individuals experience strong social bonds through adult transitions such as marriage or stable employment

C. Desistance happens primarily because of formal criminal justice sanctions deterring future offending

D. Desistance is random and cannot be explained by life events or social context

desistance occurs when individuals experience strong social bonds through adult transitions such as marriage or stable employment

Labeling theory is primarily focused on…

A. primary deviance

B. secondary deviance

C. tertiary deviance

D. the dramatization of evil

secondary deviance

According to Becker’s typology of deviant behavior, those who engage in normal behavior, those who engage in normal behavior, but are perceived as deviant are known as…

A. falsely accused

B. conformist

C. secret deviant

D. pure deviant

falsely accused

Being labeled as a felon often has consequences for employment, housing, surveillance by the state, and social and romantic relationships. This label affects so many areas of an individual’s life because society perceives the individual first and foremost as a danger to society. Which concept from labeling theory best fits this example?

A. stigmatization

B. primary deviance

C. spoiled identity

D. master status

master status

Karl Marx is known for his work in founding communism. In sociology and criminology, he is known for founding which theoretical tradition?

A. critical

B. conflict

C. labeling

D. life course

conflict

WEB DuBois, while a civil rights leader in the late 19th and early 20th century, built a career as a sociologist. His work in the Marxist sociological tradition argued…

A. That powerful elites sought to keep the working class poor by dividing it along racial lines

B. that crime was a result of a lack of informal social controls, and these informal social controls were weak in minority communities

C. that the US entered into a state of anomie as a result of the end of the civil war and the abolition of the institution of slavery

D. that race and class were completely independent of each other

that powerful elites sought to keep the working class poor by dividing it along racial lines

Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls developed the concept of collective efficacy, which they defined “as social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on the behalf of the common good”. Which of the following characterizes neighborhood with a high amount of collective efficacy?

A. high level of community member involvement in community organizations

B. high arrest rates

C. low poverty rates

D. lots of unsupervised teens

high level of community member involvement in community organizations

The Chicago School of Sociology gave rise to many theories in criminology. Which Chicago School theory focuses on community level crime?

A. Differential Association

B. Symbolic Interactionism

C. social disorganization

D. classic strain 

social disorganization

The view that injustice is rooted in gender disparities and can be addressed by making men and women equal in society is a view most representative of which type of feminism?

A. Queer Feminism

B. Liberal Feminism

C. Conservative Feminism

D. Critical Race Feminism

liberal feminism

Adler’s Liberation Theory of Female Criminality is argued that the increase of crimes committed by women in the 1950s and 1960s was a result of…

A. increased social control on women

B. manipulation of FBI statistics

C. parents increasingly socializing women more similarly to men as their freedom increased

D. women protesting their treatment in a patriarchal society by violently attacking men in power

parents increasingly socializing women more similarly to men as their freedom increased

Park and Burgess divided the city of Chicago, and by extension other large cities, into five concentric zones. Which one had the highest crime rate?

A. Zone 1- Central Business District

B. Zone 2- Transition 

C. Zone 3- Working Class

D. Zone 4- Residential Zone

zone 2

What court case established the juvenile court?

O’Connell v Turner

Quantitative research is usually what type of reasoning?

deductive

• Cesare Beccaria

• humans are deterred by punishment

• for punishment to be effective, it needs to be:

  • certain

  • proportional in severity

  • swift

deterrence theory

• humans are self interested and make decisions that minimize pain and maximize pleasure

• risk - rewards = crime

rational choice theory

• Sutherland

• learning an excess of definitions favorable to violate the law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law

differential association theory

• Akers

• having more definitions favorable toward deviant behavior

social learning theory

• positive reward

• negative reward

• positive punishment

• negative punishment

• reinforcement by social actors → family, schools, religion, friends

• reinforcement by nonsocial actors → drugs, alcohol

differential reinforcement

• Skyes and Matza’s

• denial of responsibility

• denial of injury

• denial of the victim

• condemnation of the condemners

• appeal to higher loyalties

techniques of neutralization

• hirschi

• bonds in society (stakes in conformity) that prevent us from offending

• attachment, commitment, belief, involvement

social bond theory

• Gottfredson and Hirschi

• crime is committed by those with low self control

• rank-order is stable over time

self-control theory

• people reduce offending as they age

• offending peaks at age 17 and declines after 25

age-crime curve

• Sampson and Laub

• turning points change trajectories of offending (employment and marriage)

• when they occur at an appropriate age, they create a social bond

age graded theory of informal social control

• Moffitt

• adolescent limited: people that engage in antisocial behavior as teenagers

• life course persistent: people with neurocognitive issues that result in problematic behaviors

dual taxonomy of adolescence limited and life course persistent offending

• life course persistent offenders take on adult roles early

• going into adulthood, adolescent limited offenders cut them off

maturity gap

• Agnew

• people are inherently prosocial but the social structure pushes them into crime

• 3 types:

  • failure to achieve a goal

  • anticipated or actual loss of a positively valued stimuli

  • presentation of noxious stimuli

• 3 types of coping:

  • behavioral 

  • cognitive

  • emotional

general strain

• Durkheim

• as society modernizes and specializes, norms for regulating wants and needs are missing

• as norms break down, people are less restrained to culture and social structure

anomie theory

• Merton

• strain (disjunction between culturally acceptable goals and access to the legitimate means to obtain goals)

• conformity

• innovation

• ritualism

• retreatism

• rebellion

classic strain theory

• Cloward and Ohlin

• criminal delinquent subcultures lack the opportunities of middle class communities

• illegitimate means to goals are not evenly distributed

differential opportunity theory

• Cohen

• delinquent subculture forms out of frustration of not being able to meet middle-class standards

subcultural theory of delinquency

• Park and Burgess

• Shaw and McKay

• mapping the five concentric zones

• 3 components

  • ethnic heterogeneity

  • poverty

  • residential mobility

social disorganization theory

official label on juveniles; earlier concept of stigma

dramatization of evil

• Lemert and Goffman

• label of criminality becomes their master status

labeling theory

• falsely accused associates with deviant individual

• pure deviant is an individual that is open about deviant or cannot hide deviance

• conformist is a rule follower, not deviant

• secret deviant

criminal typology

primary deviance → label → formal and informal sanctions → secondary deviance → more sanctions → change in self-concept → social exclusion

labeling process