Sociology 4461 Criminology Test I

Front 1

is the study of law making, law breaking, and the social reaction to law breaking (according to Edward Sutherland)

Back 1

Criminology

Front 2

Laws against murder and theft are more of a mutual consensus because everyone agrees that these behaviors are inappropriate. We can argue against punishment for murder, but not really murder it self because everyone values life and property. This viewpoint describes what model?

Back 2

The Consensus model of law

Front 3

Crimes such as murder fall under the consensus model of law. what are some things that would fall under the conflict model of law and why?

Back 3

Abortion, is it murder? Largely debated. Current legislation on abortion reflects the viewpoints of those in power.

Front 4

Society's response to law breaking

Back 4

The criminal justice system: Police, courts, etc.

Front 5

What is the goal of any scientific study?

Back 5

To establish a link between variables

Front 6

Race, age, sex, education, and crime rate, are all examples of?

Back 6

variables

Front 7

Finding a link between two or more variables is known as an:

Back 7

empirical regularity

Front 8

This is the major source of official information on crime

Back 8

UCR, compiled by the FBI.

Front 9

What are some un official sources of crime information?

Back 9

NCVS, Case studies, and other statistics that don't come from some official agency

Front 10

the difference between the sample that you have and the population that you are really after.

Back 10

Sample bias

Front 11

what are the 2 types of index crimes listed on the UCR

Back 11

Crimes against persons, and crimes against property

Front 12

what are the 4 index crimes against persons listed on the UCR?

Back 12

o homicide
o robbery
o rape

aggravated assault

Front 13

what are the 4 index crimes against property, listed on the UCR?

Back 13

o burglary
o larceny theft
o auto theft
o arson (illegal lighting of fires)

Front 14

the unlawful entering of a structure with the intention of committing a crime or larceny therein

Back 14

burglary

Front 15

the taking of the property of another by force or threat of force and or by putting the victim in fear

Back 15

robbery

Front 16

an unlawful attack of one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury

Back 16

aggravated assault

Front 17

the unlawful taking of property from the possession of another. Examples may include, shop lifting, pick-pocketing, or stealing something from someone's front yard..

Back 17

Larceny theft

Front 18

True/False
· In the last 5 years more people have been murdered in the United States than in the Arab-Israeli conflict

Back 18

true

Front 19

True/False
the number of murders in the U.S. has gone up since 1991.

Back 19

False, down

Front 20

What are 4 reasons why certain crimes are considered serious?

Back 20

very violent and injury causing crimes are going to be serious

or if the value of the loss is very high it is considered serious (even for property crimes)

another factor has to do with the vulnerability of the victim

The relationship between the victim and offender are also taken into account

Front 21

True/False
burglaries against a household is considered more serious than crimes against businesses or establishments

Back 21

True

Front 22

True/False
Crimes between families, friends, and intimates are considered less serious than crimes against strangers

Back 22

True

Front 23

What are the top 2 crime categories that result in arresst (highest number of arrests)?

Back 23

Drug abuse violations followed by DUI.

Front 24

what is the equation for calculating the crime rate?

Back 24

(# of crimes/population) X 100,000

Front 25

A murder rate of 5.7 means?

Back 25

that there are 5.7 murders for every 100,000 people

Front 26

the percentage of offenses cleared by an arrest

Back 26

clearance rate

Front 27

What is the formula for calculating the clearance rate of a given crime?

Back 27

(# of arrests/# of offenses) X 100.

Front 28

True/False
Clearance rates tend to be higher for violent crimes like murder versus crimes against property crimes like burglary because there is more pressure to solve these crimes and there are possible witnesses with physical evidence.

Back 28

True

Front 29

What are the six conditions that must be satisfied for a crime to be recorded officially?

Back 29

1. A crime must occur.
2. There must be the perception of a crime by someone else
3. The act must be defined as a crime.
4. The crime must be reported.
5. Redefinition
6. It must be recorded.

Front 30

if several crimes are committed at once, only the most serious gets reported

Back 30

General reporting

A limitation of official statistics

Front 31

they don’t distinguish between completed and uncompleted acts of crime. This is known as what type of limitation on official statistics

Back 31

Distinguishing

Front 32

if you look at what proportion of robberies were unsuccessful you will have to look elsewhere. This is what limitation of official statistics

Back 32

Proportions

Front 33

police reporting to the FBI is voluntary and it is not yes or no and it varies in accuracy. IS this a limitation of official statistics

Back 33

yes

Front 34

Explain why politics may be a limitation, or why it may skew official statistics

Back 34

ou can have mistakes and carelessness and sometimes there can be political pressure to play with the numbers in two directions. You can make it look better or worse

Front 35

Can changes in recording practices be a limitation of official crime statistics?

Back 35

yes, for example the UCR changed its forms to make it easier to fill out and more and more departments got on board which is an administrative change and can cause error

Front 36

when police don’t come in for a variety of reasons and it does not get reported properly. This describes what limitation of official statistics?

Back 36

benign neglect.

Front 37

could include theft of a pen from a store to a diamond ring and there is no way to categorize them by law. This describes what type of limitations of official statistics?

Back 37

broad categories of crime

Front 38

True/False
There are several categories of white collar and organized crime listed on the UCR

Back 38

False

Front 39

True/False
NIBRS will include much more detailed information than the UCR.

Back 39

True

Front 40

What are the 4 segments of the NIBRS?

Back 40

1. Administrative segmet: records the incident's date and time along with ID numbers
2. Victim Segment: includes offense type, victim's age, gender race, etc., relationship to offender, jurisdiction type, injury suffered, and victim type (business, family, etc.
3. Offense Segment: includes offense type, successful or not?, weapons used?, alcohol or drugs used?, location type
4. Offender segment: offender's age, gender, race, etc.

Front 41

True/False
20% of the country is using the NIBRS system already

Back 41

True

Front 42

What are the biggest variables that influence crime according to official statistics?

Back 42

Age and gender

Front 43

True/False
Crime rates are highest in the center of big cities

Back 43

True

Front 44

True/False
Both victimization and crime are highest in black communities

Back 44

True

Front 45

True/False
Crime rates are higher in the north and always have been.

Back 45

False, south

Front 46

This unofficial source of crime data uses a rotating sample of households (phone survey), and includes only index crimes,

Back 46

NCVS

Front 47

What is the biggest advantage of the NCVS over UCR and other official sources

Back 47

You get an enourmous amount of detail that you dont get from official sources. It is the biggest source of info on why people do or do not report crimes.

Front 48

What are some of the major disadvantages of the NCVS?

Back 48

Lots of crimes are missing, the information may be unreliable (due to either forgetfullness or fabrication of things by the person being interviewed), telescoping of events, sample bias

Front 49

What is the crime prone age?

Back 49

15 to 24

Front 50

Who is most and least likely to be victimized

Back 50

Most: 15 to 24 year old male.
Least: Elderly

Front 51

Which category of crime has the highest percentage of reporting? The lowest?

Back 51

Auto theft is the highest because people have to claim insurance money. Larceny theft is the lowest.

Front 52

What is the most important factor that lead to the crime increase in the 1960's?

Back 52

The baby boom: the children of the baby boomers entered the crime prone age in that decade.

Front 53

True/False
The age curve of crime is much sharper in industrialized nations

Back 53

True

Front 54

What are the effects of the net population undercount on crime rates?

Back 54

It tends to inflate the crime rate and exaggerate race differences.

Front 55

Wrote the book entitled, The Man-Child in Harlem, which described 13 to 18 year old males living in Harlem projects.

Back 55

Claude Brown

Front 56

What are the most important changes that took place in Harlem according to Claude Brown.

Back 56

Obsession with materialism (name brand madness). Loss of Fagan like characters, obsession with the "glory" of violence, and people who did time are now looked up to.

Front 57

What are the the three stages of black/white relations according to William Julius Wilson?

Back 57

1. Plantation economy and racial caste oppression
2. Industrial Expansion and Race Conflict
3. Progressive Transition from Racial Inequalities to Class Inequalities

Front 58

This following describes which stage of Wilson's history of black/white relations? industrialization comes and scrambles the labor market and it made things complex. It threw black and white labor in competition for jobs. Blacks lost out to white labor and white labor became very powerful. White labor was big in resources, number, and power. They used their power to dominate Blacks. This was intense during the latter part of the 19th century. Period of racial antagonists (lynchings).

Back 58

Industrial Expansion and Race Conflict

Front 59

What 2 things happened that greatly influence the life of inner city blacks in Wilson's 3rd stage (Progressive transition from racial inequalities to class inequalities)?

Back 59

Civil rights movement and the the growth of the government (public) sector of the economy

Front 60

Why would the growth of the public sector of the economy be a bad thing for poor, inner city blacks?

Back 60

The growth of the public sector generated alot of jobs. In black inner cities, only the working class/middle class could take advantage of those jobs. They took the jobs and moved to the suburbs. This left the poverty class in the inner city.

Front 61

Author of the book, The Declining Significance of Race.

Back 61

William Julius Wilson

Front 62

This sociologist says that the main factor of crime is race and it will always be

Back 62

Douglas Massey

Front 63

What is the main reason for higher crime rates in inner cities, according to Massey

Back 63

Residential segregation- the tendency for blacks and whites to live apart.

Front 64

How is segregation in America maintained according to Massey?

Back 64

Threats and intimidation, residential steering, and red-lining.

Front 65

What are the economic consequences of residential segregation according to Massey?

Back 65

because of poverty and concentration there are few role models to teach you about jobs and help you be successful. The majority of jobs are controlled by whites

Front 66

What are the political consequences or residential segregation according to Massey?

Back 66

Political isolation: social segregation will politically isolate. Races can come together to end neighborhood problems. Political segregation makes inner city blacks vulnerable.

Front 67

This sociologist says that the crime rates in the inner city have changed because the structure of the city has changed

Back 67

Jack Kasarda

Front 68

industries began to sort themselves in the city. It made sense for people to go into the suburbs – cheaper land, delivery, etc. so all the low skilled jobs went out to the suburbs (manufacturing, low-skill, etc.). This phenomena is known as?

Back 68

Industrial Drift (Associated with Kasarda)

Front 69

there is a geographical mismatch between the kinds of jobs available and the kinds of people that can take them. This phenomena is known as?

Back 69

Spatial Mismatch (Associated with Kasarda)

Front 70

· The late 1600s – the cause of criminal behavior is supernatural

Crime is viewed as a sin and against God.

Back 70

Demonic perspective of crime

Front 71

This perspective on crime is associated with Cessare Beccaria, and labels crime as rational hedonism. It goes under the assumption that people's goal is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain

Back 71

Classical perspective of crime

Front 72

Under this perspective of crime. the crime is supposed to fit the punishment. Came about during the industrial revolution

Back 72

Classical perspective of crime

Front 73

This perspective of crime is associated with Cesarre Lambroso. It came about in the 1800's, and goes under the assumption that crime is a sickness

Back 73

Pathological perspective

Front 74

What is Robert Merton's structure of crime?

Back 74

Success goals-> means deficiency-> strain-> anomie-> crime

Front 75

is a weakened attachment to norms (rules). produced by strain.

Back 75

anomie

Front 76

What is the aim of Robert Merton? What is the outcome?

Back 76

Group differences in criminal behavior, why some groups are under greater pressure to deviate than others

Front 77

2 structural conditions that are crime producing according to Merton are:

Back 77

Success goals and Means Deficiency

Front 78

Stouffer's studies of attitudes of WWII black soldiers lead to this important idea. Your happiness does not depend on an absolute amount, written in a book or paycheck. It depends on a reference group

Back 78

Relative Deprivation (term coined by Merton)

Front 79

situation where someone is doing well in life, good, job, making a good salary, but there group is not doing that well, the individual can feel a tremendous sense of anomie and relative deprivation even though they are doing fine

Back 79

Fraternal Deprivation

Front 80

What is meant when we say that anomie is a shared problem?

Back 80

It turns out that when the feelings of anomie and relative deprivation become much more intensified and much stronger when they are in a shared group.

Front 81

What is the long term effect of anomie?

Back 81

Sub cultural adaptation, in which the group experiencing anomie gets rid of the old norms and substitutes new goals and acceptable ways of achieving them.

Front 82

Did a study called Delinquent Boys

Back 82

Cohen

Front 83

What was the goal of Cohen's study?

Back 83

He wanted to study what kind of adaptations or adjustments lower class youth make to the middle class measuring rod in our school system

Front 84

What adaptations did Cohen find that the lower class youth made to the middle class measuring rod?

Back 84

the lower class youths made their own measuring rod since they could not live up to the middle class one due to their background. Their measuring rod emphasized different things, like being a good fighter, being able to hustle, being street wise, and being a lady’s man.

Front 85

De-emphasize materialistic goals, or change success goals slightly away from consumption and materialism; subsequent generations are more consumption oriented than previous generations. This describes whose solution to crime?

Back 85

Merton.

Front 86

Get rid of means deficiency by making things more equal. making college more affordable for example. This describes part of whose solution to crime?

Back 86

Merton

Front 87

True/False
1 out of every 10 children in the U.S. is born straight into poverty.

Back 87

False, 1 in every 4