SCC Deviance and Crime 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Social disorganization theory, developed by Shaw and McKay, links crime primarily to:
- Individual psychological defects
- Weakened community institutions in transitional urban neighborhoods (Correct answer)
- Biological inheritance of criminal tendencies
- Government corruption and elite power
Correct answer: Weakened community institutions in transitional urban neighborhoods
Shaw and McKay found that crime rates remained high in certain Chicago neighborhoods regardless of which ethnic group lived there, pointing to neighborhood instability rather than individual traits.
Question 2: Which concept from control theory refers to the investment a person has in conventional society that discourages deviance?
- Differential association
- Stake in conformity (Correct answer)
- Retreatism
- Moral panic
Correct answer: Stake in conformity
A 'stake in conformity' describes the bonds — such as a good job, family, or reputation — that make deviance too costly for an individual.
Question 3: Edwin Sutherland's concept of 'differential association' argues that criminal behavior is learned through:
- Watching violence in mass media
- Intimate personal groups that transmit pro-criminal attitudes and techniques (Correct answer)
- Structural economic inequality and blocked opportunities
- Biological predispositions activated by social environment
Correct answer: Intimate personal groups that transmit pro-criminal attitudes and techniques
Differential association theory holds that people become criminal when they are exposed to more definitions favorable to law violation than unfavorable ones within close relationships.
Question 4: A 'moral panic' occurs when:
- Crime rates spike dramatically in a short period of time
- Society overreacts to a perceived threat, labeling a group as a danger to social values (Correct answer)
- Lawmakers fail to update criminal statutes to reflect modern behavior
- Victims collectively demand harsher sentences for offenders
Correct answer: Society overreacts to a perceived threat, labeling a group as a danger to social values
Stanley Cohen coined 'moral panic' to describe disproportionate societal anxiety about a group or behavior that threatens mainstream values, often amplified by media.
Question 5: White-collar crime is typically distinguished from street crime by:
- Higher rates of arrest and conviction
- Being committed by persons of high social status in the course of their occupation (Correct answer)
- Involving direct physical violence against victims
- Occurring exclusively in rural communities
Correct answer: Being committed by persons of high social status in the course of their occupation
Edwin Sutherland defined white-collar crime as crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation, such as embezzlement or securities fraud.
Question 6: According to conflict theory, the criminal justice system primarily serves to:
- Rehabilitate offenders and reintegrate them into society
- Protect the interests of the powerful and criminalize the behavior of the powerless (Correct answer)
- Apply consistent and fair standards of justice across all social classes
- Deter crime through swift and certain punishment
Correct answer: Protect the interests of the powerful and criminalize the behavior of the powerless
Conflict theorists argue that laws and their enforcement reflect the interests of dominant groups, resulting in the over-policing and over-incarceration of marginalized communities.
Question 7: The concept of 'reintegrative shaming,' proposed by John Braithwaite, suggests that crime is reduced when:
- Offenders are permanently excluded from society through long prison sentences
- Shaming focuses on the act while reaccepting the offender into the community afterward (Correct answer)
- Society publicly humiliates offenders to deter potential criminals
- Victims are paid reparations funded by the state
Correct answer: Shaming focuses on the act while reaccepting the offender into the community afterward
Braithwaite argued that shaming that condemns the deed but reintegrates the offender reduces recidivism, unlike stigmatizing shaming that pushes offenders into criminal subcultures.
SCC Deviance and Crime 3
Social disorganization theory, developed by Shaw and McKay, links crime primarily to: