Test Bank for Criminological Theory
Edition by Lilly, Cullen, Ball
ISBN: 9781071816417
Criminological Theory (8th)
ISBN 9781071816417 | Chapter 1
Total Questions: 50
Multiple Choice (25)
Q1. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Each year the FBI publishes the ______ in which it lists the numbers of various crimes that have become known to the nation’s police departments.
a) Uniform Crime Reports ✓ correct
b) Self-Report Survey
c) Universal Crime Report
d) National Crime Report
Q2. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Which of the following is not included in the Uniform Crime Reports “Crime Index?”
a) murder
b) assault
c) drug offenses ✓ correct
d) rape
Q3. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge ______ is a study in which citizens are asked whether they have been victimized.
a) Universal Crime Report
b) National Crime Report
c) National Crime Victimization Survey ✓ correct
d) Uniform Crime Report
Q4. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Lawlessness in ______ surpasses that in other industrialized nations.
a) England
b) the United States ✓ correct
c) Canada
d) Italy
Q5. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension ______ crime is especially prominent in the United States.
a) Property
b) Drug
c) Traffic
d) Violent/lethal ✓ correct
Q6. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Most people have developed their own ______ of criminal behavior.
a) penalties
b) experiments
c) laws
d) theories ✓ correct
Q7. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Application
Sally has been burglarized by someone who is homeless. She then begins to think poverty is a cause of crime. This is an example of how Sally’s ______ have/has shaped the way she has come to think about crime.
a) social experiences ✓ correct
b) stereotypes
c) media consumption
d) peers
Q8. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Americans’ views on crime have ______ since the settlers first landed on the nation’s shores.
a) changed ✓ correct
b) become less harsh
c) become more lenient
d) stayed the same
Q9. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Support for criminal justice policies eventually will collapse if the ______ on which they are based no longer makes sense.
a) data
b) theory ✓ correct
c) community
d) research
Q10. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
The fact that criminal justice policies have changed over time is a product of the ______ in society.
a) personalities
b) individuals
c) times
d) transformations ✓ correct
Q11. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
The ______ school emphasized the role of the rational human being who weighed costs and benefits.
a) positivist
b) Chicago
c) classical ✓ correct
d) New York
Q12. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
The ______ school sought to collect data in order to scientifically study criminals.
a) positivist ✓ correct
b) Chicago
c) classical
d) New York
Q13. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Which of the following theory is not considered one of the three mainstream theories of criminology?
a) differential association theory
b) anomie–strain theory
c) labeling theory ✓ correct
d) control theory
Q14. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension ______ suggests that the criminal justice system and its approaches to solving crime actually can increase crime rather than reduce it.
a) Conflict theory
b) Classical theory
c) Labeling theory ✓ correct
d) Functionalist theory
Q15. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge ______ explanations of crime argue that the answer to crime rests largely in harsher sanctions.
a) Left
b) Conservative ✓ correct
c) Liberal
d) Independent
Q16. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge ______ argues that crime is best understood as an “event” that involves not only a motivated offender, but also the “opportunity” to break the law.
a) Strain theory
b) Routine activities theory ✓ correct
c) Conflict theory
d) Differential association theory
Q17. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Which of the following theories brings biological thinking into criminology?
a) biosocial ✓ correct
b) conflict
c) labeling
d) environmental
Q18. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Application Jimmy had a mother who abused him as a child. When he went to school, he did poorly academically and was often treated poorly by teachers. He is now 31 years old and in trouble. Which theory would take all of the information provided into account when determining why Jimmy has engaged in criminal behavior?
a) biosocial
b) routine activities
c) developmental criminology ✓ correct
d) infant criminology
Q19. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Application ______ theorists would argue that the United States has greater levels of lawlessness due to its embracement of capitalistic ideals.
a) Biosocial
b) Conflict ✓ correct
c) Labeling
d) Environmental
Q20. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
In which decade did new criminologies emerge claiming that crime was due to the faults of individuals?
a) 1960
b) 1970
c) 1980 ✓ correct
d) 1990
Q21. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge ______ examines how controls influence criminal behavior.
a) Control ✓ correct
b) Conflict
c) Environmental
d) Classical
Q22. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge ______ perspective has led to the “gendering of criminology” in the United States and Britain.
a) Masculinity
b) Gendered
c) Women-focused
d) Feminist ✓ correct
Q23. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge ______ theories see crime as a choice shaped by the perceived costs and benefits.
a) Feminist
b) Control
c) Perpetual deterrence ✓ correct
d) Labeling
Q24. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge ______ explore how crime occurs when individuals learned cultural definitions supportive of illegal conduct.
a) Differential association theories ✓ correct
b) Anomie–strain theories
c) Labeling theories
d) Control theories
Q25. [Multiple Choice] · Cognitive Domain: Application Theories of ______ could be used to explain crimes committed by CEOs and politicians.
a) white-collar crime ✓ correct
b) blue-collar crime
c) elitists
d) professionals
True/False (15)
Q26. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Crime is a serious matter and therefore does require scientific study and understanding.
a) True ✓ correct
b) False
Correct answer: True
Q27. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Many citizens do not report crimes against them to the police.
a) True ✓ correct
b) False
Correct answer: True
Q28. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Crime rates across the United States are similar.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q29. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Most people’s opinions about crime are drawn from sustained study of the topic.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q30. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Theories are mere empty ruminations and have no consequences in the real world.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q31. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge As theories of crime change, so do criminal justice policies.
a) True ✓ correct b) False
Correct answer: True
Q32. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge It is acceptable to decontextualize criminological theory.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q33. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Feminist thought has led to the gendering of criminology.
a) True ✓ correct
b) False
Correct answer: True
Q34. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Although criminological theory historically has focused on what motivates people to commit crime, it has not systematically studied how variations in the opportunity to offend affect the amount and distribution of criminality in American society.
a) True ✓ correct
b) False
Correct answer: True
Q35. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
According to labeling theory, the key to understanding crime is studying how people develop into offenders and how they escape from their lives of crime.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q36. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Differential association theory focuses on reducing opportunities for crime within a particular situation.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q37. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Theory construction is a human enterprise.
a) True ✓ correct
b) False
Correct answer: True
Q38. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Conservative theories argue that society is too soft on crime and punishes criminals too harshly.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q39. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
The three mainstream theories call for the overthrow of the current social order.
a) True
b) False ✓ correct
Correct answer: False
Q40. [True/False] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
The FBI publishes the Uniform Crime Reports.
a) True ✓ correct
b) False
Correct answer: True
Essay (10)
Q41. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Compare the different ways in which we obtain crime statistics. Why is it important that we use multiple methods of obtaining crime statistics?
Suggested answer: Sample response: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) publishes the Uniform Crime Reports in which it lists the numbers of various crimes that have become known (mostly through reports by citizens) to the nation’s police departments. Victimization surveys examine people about their experience of being a victim. It is important to have both types as many people do not report crimes to the police.
Q42. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Analysis
How does criminality in the United States compare to criminality in other industrialized Western nations?
Suggested answer: Sample response: For most forms of crime (e.g., property, assault), Americans’ involvement is similar to that of other industrialized Western societies. But for lethal violence, the United States is a clear outlier among highly developed nations.
Q43. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Application
How do people develop their opinions about crime and criminality? Specifically, how have your views of crime been developed?
Suggested answer: Sample response: Attitudes about crime, as well as about other social issues, can come from a variety of sources—parents, church sermons, how crime is depicted on television, whether one has had family members or friends who have turned to crime, whether one has experimented with criminal activity oneself or perhaps been victimized, and so on. In short, social experiences shape the ways in which people come to think about crime.
Q44. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Application
Explain the relationship between theory and policy. Give a specific example of how a theory informed policy.
Suggested answer: Sample response: Different theories suggest different ways of reducing crime. Depending on what is proposed as the cause of illegal behavior, certain criminal justice policies and practices will seem reasonable; others will seem irrational and perhaps dangerously irresponsible. As theories of crime change, so do criminal justice policies.
Q45. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Explain the distribution of crime across the United States. How does theory help us explain the distribution of crime?
Suggested answer: Sample response: Crime is not evenly distributed within the United States. As Blumstein (2000) noted, in 1996 only “ten cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans, Baltimore, Houston, [and] Dallas, in order of decreasing numbers of homicides) accounted for fully one quarter of all the nation’s homicides” (p. 36). Striking differences in criminality are also found within communities, and even across blocks located within the same neighborhood (Weisburd, Groff, & Yang, 2012). Theories help by identifying the causes of crime.
Q46. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Compare the criminologist’s theory of crime and the average individual’s theory of crime. Which is more empirically sound and why?
Suggested answer: Sample response: The average individual’s opinions about crime are drawn less from sustained thought and more from the implicit understandings that they have come to embrace during their lives. Criminologists have taken the time to read extensively on crime, have sifted through existing research studies, and have arrived at informed assessments of why laws are disregarded. Criminologists’ theories are more empirically sound because they are based on research.
Q47. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Application How has theory changed with the social context? Give an example from the chapter.
Suggested answer: Sample response: Social context plays a critical role in nourishing certain ways of theorizing about crime. If the prevailing social context changes and people begin to experience life differently, then there will be a corresponding shift in the way in which they see their world and the people in it. Previous theories of crime will lose their appeal, and other perspectives will increasingly make sense to larger numbers of people. Note that all of this can take place—and, indeed, usually does take place—without systematic analysis of whether the old theory actually was wrong or whether the new theory represents an improvement. Could use any of the theories with support evidence as their example.
Q48. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Explain how the social context of the mid-1960s led to the rise of conflict theories.
Suggested answer: Sample response: Starting in the mid-1960s, however, scholars increasingly sought to identify how conflict and power were inextricably involved in the production of crime and in the inequities found in the criminal justice system. They were influenced by the changing context of American society. During the 1960s and into the 1970s, the United States experienced contentious movements to achieve civil rights and women’s rights. Americans witnessed riots in the street, major political figures assassinated, widespread protests over the Vietnam War culminating with students shot down at Kent State University, and political corruption highlighted most poignantly by the Watergate scandal. These events sensitized a generation of criminologists to social and criminal injustices that compromised the American dream’s promise of equality for all and that led to the abuse of state power. Given this jaundiced view of American society, the new brand of theorizing that they developed was called critical criminology.
Q49. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Why are anomie–strain theories, differential association theories, and control theories considered mainstream theories?
Suggested answer: Sample response: These three theories are sometimes called mainstream criminology. For more than 80 years, they have occupied the center of American criminology. In the aftermath of World War II, they were particularly dominant.
Q50. [Essay] · Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Describe the theories that arose during the conservative era. What about the social climate of the time that gave rise to these theories?
Suggested answer: Sample response: Deterrence, rational choice, broken windows, moral poverty, routine activity, environmental—rejecting mainstream and critical criminology. America turned to the political right during the Reagan and Bush years of the 1980s and beyond. During this time, new criminologies emerged claiming that crime was due not to the faults in society but rather to the faults of individuals. To at least some degree, these explanations may be seen as attempts to revitalize—dressed in new language and with more sophisticated evidence—the models of crime that were popular a century ago. These theories vary in their scientific merit, but they are consistent in suggesting that the answer to crime rests largely in harsher sanctions—especially the expanded use of imprisonment—against offenders. In this sense, these theories are best considered conservative explanations of crime.