Sociology Module 7 Quiz – Flashcards
Flashcard maker : Misty Porter
According to Robert Merton’s strain theory, the term ______________ correctly describes the behavior of a radical activist who rejects just about everything in the existing society in favor of some alternative system.
rebel
The value of psychological theories of deviance is limited because ___________ .
most people who commit crimes have normal personalities
According to Robert Merton’s strain theory, how would you classify a low-paid, yet compulsively conforming bank teller who never seems to want to get ahead but never seems to do anything wrong?
Ritualist
According to Durkheim, functions of deviance include _______________ .
the idea that responding to deviance promotes social unity
According to Robert Merton’s strain theory, the term ________ correctly describes the behavior of a school “dropout” who rejects both cultural goals and the conventional means to reach them.
retreatist
The basic idea behind labeling theory is that ________
deviance arises not so much from what people do as how others respond to what they do.
An example of the “medicalization of deviance” is ________
theft being redefined as a “compulsive stealing.”
A judge orders that an offender be sentenced to prison for a short time, with most of the sentence served on probation. This sentence reflects a policy called ________
shock probation
In his study of New England’s Puritans, Kai Erikson concluded that ________
even this disciplined and highly religious group created deviance to clarify the moral boundaries of their community.
Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory links deviance to ________
the amount of contact a person has with others who encourage or discourage conventional behavior.
Because there are several hundred people in the United States for every police officer, police ________
use discretion in deciding which situations warrant their attention.
A hate crime is defined as ________
a criminal act motivated by race or other bias.
Travis Hirschi’s control theory suggests that the category of people most likely to engage in deviance is ________
youngsters who “hang out” waiting for something to happen.
One of the social foundations of deviance is that ________
deviance exists only in relation to cultural norms
The formal system that responds to alleged violations of the law using police, courts, and prison officials is called ________
the criminal justice system.
A judge sentences a young man who has committed several crimes to counseling and places him in a supportive foster home. These efforts to prevent further wrongdoing are called ________
rehabilitation
Walter Reckless and Simon Dinitz claimed that “good boys” have the ability to rein in deviant impulses. They called their analysis ________
containment theory
Crime committed by persons of high social position during the course of their occupations is called ________
white-collar crime
Looking back in history, the oldest justification for punishing an offender is ________
retribution
“Crimes against the person” includes all but ________
burglary
Research suggests that, with regard to social class, arrest for serious crime ________
is higher for people at in lower class levels.
“The recognized violation of cultural norms” refers to the concept of ________
deviance
Organized crime refers to ________
any business that supplies illegal goods or services
The likelihood a person will be arrested for a street crime rises sharply ________
during the late teenage years
In Robert Merton’s strain theory of deviance, ___________ refers to the process of seeking conventional goals but rejecting the conventional means to achieve them
Innovation
Every society uses various strategies to regulate the behavior of individuals; this general process is called ____________________ .
social control
According to Elliot Currie, factors that explain the high crime rate in the United States by world standards include
our emphasis on individual economic success, which weakens the social fabric
Men, who represent about half the U.S. population, account for about __________ of all arrests for property crime.
63 percent
The concept of criminal recidivism refers to ________
later offenses by people previously convicted of crimes
What concept did Erving Goffman use to refer to a powerful and negative label that greatly changes a person’s self-concept and social identity?
stigma
Edwin Lemert described “primary deviance” as _______________ .
a passing episode of deviance that has little effect on the person’s self-concept
Victimization surveys show that the actual amount of crime in the United States is about _______ what official reports indicate.
more than twice as high
According to the social-conflict approach, what a society labels as deviant is based primarily on ___________ .
differences in power between various categories of people
Alexander Liazos speaks for the social-conflict approach when he states that _________________ .
powerless people are at the highest risk of being defined as deviant
If a parent threatens a child with punishment in order to discourage wrongdoing, the parent is using punishment to accomplish __________________ .
deterrence
Cloward and Ohlin extended Merton’s theory of deviance, stating that crime ________________ .
reflects both limited legitimate opportunity as well as accessible illegitimate opportunity
