Criminal Justice Ch. 2 – Flashcards
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Most criminologists agree there is one major theory that explains the majority of crime.
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False
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Cesare Lombroso, Richard Dugdale, and William Sheldon were all proponents of
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biological determinism.
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Which perspective emphasized that a person's criminal nature was an inherited characteristic?
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early biological theories
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Those who advocate conflict theories and class and power inequality as the causes of crime are known as radical criminologists.
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True
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The central tenet of the positivist school of criminology is that
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a criminal's decision to commit crime is influenced by external factors.
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Criminal offender John Doe grew up surrounded by poverty and other disruptive social forces. Which theory would argue that his criminal behavior was independent of individual characteristics?
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social disorganization
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Feminist criminology assumes that the cause of criminality among females is the inequality of power between men and women.
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True
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Chicago experienced unemployment problems, poor schools, and substandard housing during the early part of the twentieth century; hence, criminal behavior could be expected in these zones according to
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Shaw and McKay
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Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were proponents of the concentric zone model.
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False
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The concept of protecting the identity of juveniles charged with delinquency is rooted from which theory of criminology?
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labeling theory
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Which theory is based on the belief that structural factors such as poverty, illiteracy, lack of schooling, and unemployment are powerful forces that influence levels of crime?
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zone theory
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An attempt to define and explain factors that predict behavior under certain conditions is termed
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theories
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Bentham's philosophy is called
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utilitarianism
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Which of the following statements is not correct?
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Freud himself focused on the study of criminal behavior.
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The differential association theory that criminal behavior is learned through association with a peer group that engages in criminal behavior was created by
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Edwin Sutherland
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Feminist criminology assumes that the underlying cause of criminal behavior by females is the inequality of power between men and women.
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True
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The purpose of a theory is to define and explain the factors that influence or determine behavior and how the factors interrelate.
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True
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Causal variables are variables that directly influence the outcome of relationships.
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True
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Which variables do criminologists think influence criminal behavior?
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sociology, psychology, biology
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Sigmund Freud based his theory on the underlying assumption that behavior is
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controlled by subconscious desires
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Whose theory of the "criminal man" was the first important positivist theory to emerge?
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Cesare Lombroso's theory
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Which of the following is not a sociological theory explaining criminal behavior?
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psychoanalytic theory
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Which of the following events is evidence that the American colonists believed in evil spirits, supernatural explanations, and used the judicial process to rid the colonies of so-called satanic influences?
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the Salem witch trials
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Freudian theory argues that
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crime is committed to alleviate feelings of guilt, so that one will be punished.
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When lower-class youth reject middle-class values that they cannot achieve and create their own counterculture it is termed
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reaction formation.
