Theories of Crime Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
This course explores the major theoretical perspectives used to explain criminal behavior and the formation of criminal laws. Students will examine classical, positivist, sociological, psychological, and contemporary frameworks, including strain theory, social learning theory, control theories, labeling theory, and critical criminology. Emphasis is placed on understanding how these theories account for individual and societal influences on crime, their historical development, and their application to current criminological issues. By analyzing empirical research and real-world examples, students will develop a critical understanding of the strengths and limitations of each theory and their implications for crime prevention and criminal justice policy.
Recommended Textbook
Criminology The Essentials 3rd Edition by Anthony Walsh
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17 Chapters
1248 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: An Overview of Crime and Criminology
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Sample Questions
Q1) The criteria for judging the merits of a theory include predictive accuracy, predictive scope, simplicity, and falsifiability.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Explain the difference between <i>mala</i> in se and <i>mala prohibita.</i>
Answer: <i>mala</i>in se crimes are consideredinherently bad, while <i>mala prohibita.</i> refers to crimes that are time and culture bound.
Q3) Criminality is the scientific study of crime and criminals.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) Provide two examples of direct and indirect costs of crime.
Answer: Direct costs include costs of running the criminal justice system (salaries and benefits of personnel, and the maintenance costs of buildings and equipment) and the costs associated with each crime.Indirect costs include all manner of surveillance and security devices, protective devices (guns, alarms, security guards) and insurance costs, medical services, and the productivity and taxes lost of incarcerated individuals.
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Chapter 2: Measuring Crime and Criminal Behavior
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Sample Questions
Q1) Identify one weakness of self-report surveys.
Answer: It does not provide a good measure of serious crimes; it is subject to the dishonesty of respondents; most of these studies are based on convenience samples.
Q2) Gauging the ______ of the problem means discovering how much of it there is, where and when it occurs most often, and among what social categories it occurs most frequently.
A)degree
B)extent
C)significance
D)relevancy
Answer: B
Q3) The hierarchy rule refers to the
A)fact that those of a higher socioeconomic status are less likely to be arrested for crimes
B)ranking system of different crime data sources by their level of accuracy
C)practice of only reporting the most serious offense committed in a given incident
D)tendency of respondents to only report serious crimes in self-report surveys
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Victimology: Exploring the Experience of Victimization
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to research by DeVoe et al (2012), bullying seems not all that prevalent with only 26.5% of students reporting being victims of bullying.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Repeat offending is more common than repeat victimization.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The strongest single predictor that girls will be molested during childhood is A)absence of their father
B)age
C)level of parental supervision
D)presence of a stepfather
Answer: D
Q4) Violent victimization is an important risk factor for subsequent violent offending. A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Page 5
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Chapter 4: The Early Schools of Criminology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Social defense theorists view crime in terms of Bentham's principle of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Define human agency.
Q3) Adolphe Quetelet is known for his work in the area of cartographic criminology.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe Cesare Lombroso's theory of atavism.What are insane criminals? What are criminaloids?
Q5) Rational choice theory is most closely linked to the ______ school.
A)classical
B)German
C)Italian
D)positivist
Q6) Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham are associated with the classical school of criminology.
A)True
B)False
Q7) Identify the three types of criminaloids.
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Chapter 5: Crime As Choice: Rationality, Emotion, and Criminal
Behavior
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58 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is meant by "arranging the environment" to prevent crime?
Q2) Which of the theories discussed in this chapter attracts disenchanted members of the radical left or anarchic label?
A)routine activities theory
B)cultural criminology
C)rational choice theory
Q3) Emotions such as empathy and guilt serve to adjust our social behavior by arousing, focusing, and modifying brain activity in ways that lead most people to habitually choose ______ responses.
A)defiant
B)rebellious
C)antisocial
D)prosocial
Q4) Cultural criminology emphasizes the role of emotions in instigating criminal behavior rather than rationality.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain rationality.
Q6) Give two examples of <i>wertrationalitat.</i>
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Chapter 6: Social Structural Theories
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Sample Questions
Q1) ______ is characteristic of modern societies in which there is a high degree of occupational specialization.
A)communal solidarity
B)mechanical solidarity
C)natural solidarity
D)organic solidarity
Q2) According to Robert Merton's theory, what causes strain?
Q3) Walter Miller's theory of focal concerns was based on the premise that
A)Access to illegitimate opportunities varies along with access to legitimate opportunities.
B)American culture is inherently criminogenic due to the value placed on economic success.
C)Lower-class individuals form counter-cultural beliefs in reaction to their status deprivation.
D)Lower-class values must be viewed on their own terms, not as negations of the middle class.
Q4) Briefly discuss when "rebellion" occurs.
Q5) Anomie is a term meaning normlessness.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Social Process Theories
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe Gottfredson and Hirschi's self-control theory.What is self-control? It is stable? What is the role of opportunity in regard to self-control theory?
Q2) This technique involves the assertion that the behaviors of parents, police, and others, are just as bad if not worse than the offender's.
A)appeal to higher loyalties
B)condemnation of condemners
C)denial of injury
D)denial of responsibility
Q3) ______ is a perspective on learning that asserts that behavior is governed and shaped by consequences.
A)labeling
B)operant psychology
C)reinforcement
D)symbolic interactionism
Q4) Identify one criticism of differential association theory.
Q5) A criticism of social learning theory is that it negates individual differences.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What is the difference between reinforcement and punishment?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Critical and Feminist Theories
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Sample Questions
Q1) The imprisonment of African American men grew significantly more than the imprisonment of African American women between 1986 and 1991.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A woman obtains a job as a sales representative.She realizes that when she works late at night, there is little oversight, and she could easily steal from the cash register without detection.This woman's foray into crime is most consistent with the ______ hypothesis.
A)emancipation
B)gender-ratio
C)masculinization
D)staying alive
Q3) Briefly explain Freda Adler's masculinization hypothesis.
Q4) Johnny owns a factory with several employees.In Marxist thought, he would best be identified as a member of the ______.
A)bourgeoisie
B)lumpenproletariat
C)proletariat
D)revolutionaries
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Chapter 9: Psychosocial Theories: Individual Traits and Criminal Behavior
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Sample Questions
Q1) Individuals with a readily aroused ANS are difficult to socialize.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to Freud, the id obeys the reality principle and is able to engage in hedonistic calculus.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Briefly describe antisocial personality disorder (APD).
Q4) Which of the following is associated with increased risk of criminality?
A)a high level of empathy
B)a high rate of serotonin
C)a relatively unresponsive ANS
D)a low level of performance intellect
Q5) Identify two personality traits that have been found to have a strong relationship to criminality.
Q6) According to Freud, the ego
A)is the biological raw material of our temperament and personality
B)obeys the pleasure principle
Page 11
C)lacks the ability to engage in hedonistic calculus
D)obeys the reality principle
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Chapter 10: Biosocial Approaches
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss how the 10-repeat allele of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) is associated with antisocial behavior according to Beaver, Wright, and Walsh.How do numbers of sexual partners relate to antisocial behavior?
Q2) Why do behavior geneticists use twin and adoption studies?
Q3) The low-activity version of the MAOA gene serves as a protective factor against criminal behavior.
A)True
B)False
Q4) ______ refers to a number ranging from 0 to 1 indicating the extent to which variance in a trait in a population is due to genetic factors.
A)genotype
B)heritability
C)phenotype
D)synapse
Q5) Briefly define parenting effort and mating effort.
Q6) Compare the perspectives of evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists.How does each perspective explain criminal behavior? Do you feel that one has more to offer in our efforts to understand crime? Support your answer.
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Chapter 11: Developmental Theories: From Delinquency to
Crime to Desistance
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is an example of a turning point?
A)marriage
B)military service
C)residential change
D)all of these are examples of turning points
Q2) There are some societies in which juvenile delinquency does not occur.
A)True
B)False
Q3) According to Terrie Moffitt's dual pathway developmental theory, there is a third group of youths who refrain from delinquency altogether.This group is known as
A)adolescent-limiteds
B)life-course persisters
C)refrainers
D)abstainers
Q4) What is conduct disorder?
Q5) Describe the main concepts and arguments from age-graded theory.What makes this theory unique?
Q6) Explain the age-crime curve.
Q7) What is meant by the maturity gap?
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Chapter 12: Crimes of Violence
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is true about rape in the United States?
A)Most rapes involve the use of a weapon.
B)The vast majority of rapes are committed by strangers to the victim.
C)Victims are less likely to report rape if they have sustained injuries in the attack.
D)About half of all rapes are committed by someone known to the victim.
Q2) When females kill males, it is typically in a ______ situation.
A)Self-defense
B)Premeditated
C)Reckless
D)Negligent
Q3) Reported rapes have fallen ______ to a rate of 26.8 since their all-time high in 1992.
A)37.4%
B)57%
C)67.7%
D)Reported rapes have increased
Q4) What is the definition of aggravated assault?
Q5) When is a typology of an offender developed?
Q6) Briefly explain the feminist theory of rape.
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Chapter 13: Terrorism
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Sample Questions
Q1) Many Islamic terrorists are recruited from ______, which are mostly nonsecular religious schools.
A)tapas
B)assallas
C)madrasas
D)sha'alsas
Q2) Scholars have identified the charismatic leader, antisocial personality, and follower as three typologies of individuals who engage in which crime?
A)assault
B)rape
C)serial murder
D)terrorism
Q3) What are some reasons that terrorism is easier to accomplish today?
Q4) What are madrasas?
Q5) Briefly describe the relationship between terrorism and common crime.
Q6) The majority of terrorists are antisocial personalities who hold deeply idealistic beliefs about right and wrong.
A)True
B)False
Page 16
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Chapter 14: Property Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) Counterfeiting is one form of
A)embezzlement
B)forgery
C)fraud
D)larceny
Q2) The vast majority of crimes committed in the United States are property, not violent, crimes.
A)True
B)False
Q3) An offender overloads a gambling website with bogus messages and useless data, preventing it from doing further business until a ransom is paid.The crime in this case is best described as
A)a denial of service attack
B)identity theft
C)phishing
D)piracy
Q4) Describe the recent trends in property crime.How has property crime changed as technology has developed?
Q5) What distinguishes grand theft from petty theft?
Q6) What is the definition of fraud?
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Chapter 15: Public Order Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most drug use by adolescents will eventually develop into addiction.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following, passed in 1914, was instrumental in changing the way that Americans thought about drug use?
A)The Boggs Act
B)The Golden Rule Disposition
C)The Harrison Act
D)The Volstead Act
Q3) Identify one physiological effect of alcohol.
Q4) It has been estimated that prostitution is the primary source of income for over one million women in the United States.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The passage of the Harrison Act led to an increase in drug addictions in the United States.
A)True
B)False
Q6) How do the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define binge drinking?
Page 18
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Chapter 16: White-Collar Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) What was the test used by Walters and Geyer (2004) to measure criminal thinking patterns such as hostility, cutoff, entitlement, and power orientation?
A)SIC scale
B)LCSF-R
C)NWC
D)PICTS
Q2) People high in ______ exploit superiors and equals by deceit and ingratiation, and subordinates by bullying.
A)The McClellan Commission
B)locus of control
C)Machiavellianism
D)moral reasoning
Q3) What is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?
Q4) Which of the following increased the penalties for corporate crimes in the United States?
A)The Harrison Act
B)The McClellan Commission
C)Sarbanes-Oxley Act
D)Volstead Act
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Chapter 17: Organized Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the "big four" motorcycle groups of the United States, women enjoy full and equal membership.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Explain what the continuum of corruption means.
Q3) La Cosa Nostra is the only organized crime group operating in the United States.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Criteria for involvement in La Cosa Nostra includes which of the following?
A)being male
B)being of Italian descent
C)having proven criminal expertise
D)all of these
Q5) The motorcycle gang "Hell's Angels" is one example of an organized crime group.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Ethnicity remains a strong predictive and causal factor in the explanation of organized crime.
A)True
B)False
Page 20
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