Social Science and the American Crime Problem Comprehensive Study Guide

Micro-criminology

Micro-criminology

how traits and characteristics shape criminal actors.

Macro-criminology

how culture and social structure shapes wider crime rates.

4 Key Components of the American Dream

Materialism, Achievement, Individualism, and Universalism

best database for murder, victimless crime and crimes against organizations.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

best database for all other offenses .

Defunding the Police

Defunding calls for a substantial reduction of police department budgets, using those funds instead for social services and anti-poverty measures.

Abolishing the Police

 Abolitionists believe that reforms cannot fix policing because it is an inherently racist tool of social control. Abolitionists envision a society in which the police are unnecessary because basic human needs are provided.

Referring to the Shaw et al. article on global crime trends, which of the following is one of the main hazards to consider when making cross-national crime comparisons?

Different countries have shown different levels in crime reporting

Referring to the graphic evidence presented in the Tseloni et al. article on the recent decline in international crime rates, which of the following crime types experienced the steepest decline worldwide from 1988 to 2004?

Burglary

Referring to the Shaw et al. article on global crime trends, what is the primary data source upon which the authors base their discussion?

 The United Nations Survey of Crime Trends (UNSCT)

Referring to Blumstein and Rosenfeld's article on the factors contributing to U.S. crime trends, which of the following is listed among the demographic factors that serve as a good leading indicator of crime?

The age composition of the population

Referring to Blumstein and Rosenfeld's article on the factors contributing to U.S. crime trends, which of the following is a promising good leading indicator of the relationship between the economy and crime?

Consumer sentiment levels

Referring to the Shaw et al. article on global crime trends, which type of crime is believed to enjoy the most reliable official data and thus is most often used by researchers when making cross-national comparisons of crime?

Homicide

Referring to the Tseloni et al. article on the recent decline in international crime rates, what country to the authors cite as being the trend setter or the first to show a major fall in its crime rate?

United States

Referring to Blumstein and Rosenfeld's article on the factors contributing to U.S. crime trends, which of the following factors was identified as relevant to understanding local or city level variation in crime trends?

Firearm availability

According to the Sacco article on on media and crime, what category of crime is afforded the most attention by media sources?

Violent crime

According to Sacco's Chapter 6 on "Being Afraid," what term does Mark Warr use to conceptualize the fear that one person feels on behalf of another person?

Altruistic fear

According to the Sacco article on the media and crime, what is meant by the statement that the media tends to utilize a personification theme when covering crime stories?

The tendency to focus only on the individual actors and not cultural context

According to Sacco's article on the mass media and crime,journalistic mores or norms have changed in the last quarter century. What is one factor that they cite in this regard?

News outlets show little restraint and are willing to report on taboo topics and about peoples' private lives.

According to the Reinarman and Levine retrospective on the crack epidemic of the 1980s,crack cocaine represented a "marketing innovation" over powder cocaine. Which of the following was NOT one of the factors they pointed to in order to support this claim?

Crack added caffeine and amphetamines to a powder cocaine base to yield a super form of stimulant

Which of the following is consistent with Beckett and Sasson's observations in Chapter 6 about American's fear of crime?

The percent of Americans who are afraid to walk alone near their homes at night has remained remarkably stable lately.

According the Beckett's chapter on contemporary American politics, what is the translated meaning of Max Weber's concept of "vielseitigkeit" that is used to explain the complexity that is inherent to social problems such as crime in America?

Many-sidedness of reality

According to Nicole Porter's article on the top 20 state criminal justice reforms of 2020, which of the following is an example of a "second chance" reform effort?

Expanded opportunities for felons to apply to have their past criminal record expunged (cleaned) from public records

According to the Mears article on the irrationality of  criminal justice policy, what tool does the author forward as a framework for critiquing current justice policy?

Evaluation hierarchy

At the peak of the popular punitiveness era in the late 1990s, most Americans preferred that our tax dollars be spent on which type of anti-crime strategies?

Crime prevention programs

According to the Mears article on the irrationality of  criminal justice policy, which of the following should be the last step and thus sits at the top of the criminal justice policy evaluation hierarchy?

 Cost-efficiency evaluation.

According to Beckett and Sasson (Ch. 6), which of the following is NOT a noticeable demographic trend in the fear of crime data in this country?

Minority men and women report lower levels of fear than their white counterparts

According to the Malega and Cohen report on state court organization, under the Georgia court structure, Superior Court is categorized in which jurisdiction level?

General jurisdiction court

According to the Spillane and Wolcott chapter on the politics of America's law and order approach to justice, the "great migration" played a central role in rising public fear of crime. What does this term refer to?

African Americans migrating out of the rural south and into northern and western cities

According to Chapter 6 of Sacco's book entitled "Being Afraid," questions that focus on the cognitive dimension of fear are designed to tap which of the following concepts?

Respondents' beliefs regarding crime and victimization.

Referring to the Ablon et al. report on markets for cybercrime tools and stolen data,what definition d the authors provide for the term "hacker market"?

The collection of (skilled and unskilled) suppliers, vendors, potential buyers, and intermediaries for goods and services surrounding digitally based crimes

Referring to the Buxtom and Bingham policy brief on the rise and challenges of dark net drug markets, what was the effect of the FBI's arrest of Dread Pirate Roberts (Ross Ulbrict) and takedown of the Silk Road dark web drug market?

It broke up an online monopoly and led to the spread of many more dark web drug markets

Referring to Beeghley's chapter on the American dream and homicide, the author makes the argument that Messner & Rosenfeld error in not more fully applying Merton's modes of adaptation to explain homicide outcomes in America. Which mode of adaptation does Beeghley say was completely ignored in their analysis of anomie, modernity, and homicide?

ritualism

Referring to the Alvarez and Bachman chapter on American murder patterns, which of the following types of victim-offender relationship exhibits the highest homicide rate?

friend/acquaintance