Exam 2- Ch. 4, 6, and 7

Question 1

Rational Choice Theory

Answer 1

The view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the potential offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act

Question 2

Classical Criminology

Answer 2

A theory of crime suggesting that criminal behavior is a matter of personal choice, made after the individual considers its costs and benefits, and that the criminal behavior reflects the needs of the offender

Question 3

Offense-Specific Crime

Answer 3

The view that an offender reacts selectively to the characteristics of a particular criminal act

Question 4

Offender-Specific Crime

Answer 4

The view that offenders evaluate their skills, motives, needs, and fears before deciding to commit the criminal act

Question 5

Johns

Answer 5

Men who solicit sex workers

Question 6

Situational Crime Prevention

Answer 6

A method of crime prevention that seeks to eliminate or reduce particular crimes in specific settings (improved surveillance)

Question 7

Defensible Space

Answer 7

The principle that crime can be prevented or displaced by modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity that individuals have to commit crime (well-lit housing projects)

Question 8

Crime Discouragers

Answer 8

People who serve as guardians of property or people

Question 9

Diffusion

Answer 9

An effect that occurs when efforts to prevent one crime unintentionally prevent another

Question 10

Discouragement

Answer 10

An effect that occurs when crime control efforts targeting a particular locale help reduce crime in surrounding areas and populations

Question 11

Displacement

Answer 11

An effect that occurs when crime control efforts simply move, or redirect, offenders to less heavily guarded alternative targets

Question 12

Extinction

Answer 12

An effect that occurs when crime reduction programs produce a short-term positive effect, but benefits dissipate as criminals adjust to new conditions

Question 13

Replacement

Answer 13

An effect that occurs when criminals try new offenses they had previously avoided because situational crime prevention programs neutralized their crime of choice

Question 14

General Deterrence

Answer 14

A crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with the crime outweigh the benefits

Question 15

Marginal Deterrence

Answer 15

Occurs when a relatively more severe penalty will produce some reduction in crime

Question 16

Restrictive (Partial) Deterrence

Answer 16

Refers to situations in which the threat of punishment can reduce but not eliminate crime

Question 17

Specific Deterrence

Answer 17

The view that criminal sanctions should be so powerful that offenders will never repeat their criminal acts

Question 18

Recidivism

Answer 18

Repetition of criminal behavior

Question 19

Incapacitation Effect

Answer 19

The idea that keeping offenders in confinement will eliminate the risk of their committing further offenses

Question 20

Stratified Society

Answer 20

People grouped according to economic or social class; characterized by the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige

Question 21

Social Class

Answer 21

Segment of the population whose members are at a relatively similar economic level and who share attitudes, values, norms, and an identifiable lifestyle

Question 22

Culture of Poverty

Answer 22

A separate lower-class culture, characterized by apathy, cynicism, helplessness, and mistrust of social institutions such as schools, government agencies, and the police, that is passed from one generation to the next

Question 23

Underclass

Answer 23

The lowest social stratum in any country, whose members lack the education and skills needed to function successfully in modern society

Question 24

Social Structure Theory

Answer 24

The view that disadvantaged economic class position is a primary cause of crime

Question 25

Social Disorganization Theory

Answer 25

Branch of social structure theory that focuses on the breakdown in inner-city neighborhoods of institutions such as the family, school, and employment

Question 26

Strain Theory

Answer 26

Branch of social structure theory that sees crime as a function of the conflict between people's goals and the means available to obtain them

Question 27

Strain

Answer 27

The anger, frustration, and resentment experienced by people who believe they cannot achieve their goals through legitimate means

Question 28

Cultural Deviance Theory

Answer 28

Branch of social structure theory that sees strain and social disorganization together resulting in a unique lower-class culture that conflicts with conventional social norms

Question 29

Subculture

Answer 29

A set of values, beliefs, and traditions unique to a particular social class or group within a larger society

Question 30

Transitional Neighborhoods

Answer 30

An area undergoing a shift in population and structure, usually from middle-class residential to lower-class mixed-use

Question 31

Social Ecology School

Answer 31

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of interdependent social and environmental problems that cause crime

Question 32

Concentration Effect

Answer 32

As working-class and middle-class families flee inner-city poverty-ridden areas, the most disadvantaged population is consolidated in urban ghettos

Question 33

Collective Efficacy

Answer 33

Social control exerted by cohesive communities and based on mutual trust, including intervention in the supervision of children and maintenance of public order

Question 34

Street Efficacy

Answer 34

A concept in which more cohesive communities with high levels of social control and social integration foster the ability for kids to use their wits to avoid violent confrontations and to feel safe in their own neighborhood; adolescents with high levels of street efficacy are less likely to resort to violence themselves or to associate with delinquent peers

Question 35

Anomie Theory

Answer 35

The view that anomie results when socially defined goals (such as wealth and power) are universally mandated but access to legitimate means (such as education and job opportunities) is stratified by class and status

Question 36

Institutional Anomie Theory

Answer 36

The view that anomie pervades U.S. culture because the drive for material wealth dominates and undermines social and community values

Question 37

American Dream

Answer 37

The goal of accumulating material goods and wealth through individual competition; the process of being socialized to peruse material success and to believe it is achievable

Question 38

Relative Deprivation

Answer 38

Envy, mistrust, and aggression resulting from perceptions of economic and social inequality

Question 39

General Strain Theory (GST)

Answer 39

The view that multiple sources of strain interact with an individual's emotional traits and responses to produce criminality

Question 40

Negative Affective States

Answer 40

Anger, frustration, and adverse emotions produced by a variety of sources of strain

Question 41

Focal Concerns

Answer 41

Values, such as toughness and street smarts, that have evolved specifically to fit conditions in lower-class environments

Question 42

Cultural Transmission

Answer 42

Process whereby values, beliefs, and traditions are handed down from one generation to the next

Question 43

Delinquent Subculture

Answer 43

A value system adopted by lower-class youths that is directly opposed to that of the larger society

Question 44

Status Frustration

Answer 44

A form of culture conflict experienced by lower-class youths because social conditions prevent them from achieving success as defined by the larger society

Question 45

Middle-Class Measuring Rods

Answer 45

The standards by which authority figures, such as teachers and employers, evaluate lower-class youngsters and often prejudice them negatively

Question 46

Reaction Formation

Answer 46

Irrational hostility evidenced by young delinquents, who adopt norms directly opposed to middle-class goals and standards that seem impossible to achieve

Question 47

Differential Opportunity

Answer 47

The view that lower-class youths, whose legitimate opportunities are limited, join gangs and pursue criminal careers as alternative means to achieve universal success goals

Question 48

Socialized

Answer 48

The process of acquiring social norms, values, behavior, and skills through interaction with significant others such as parents, peers, and teachers

Question 49

Social Process Theory

Answer 49

The view that criminality is a function of people's interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society

Question 50

Social Learning Theory

Answer 50

The view that people learn the techniques and attitudes of crime from close relationships with criminals peers; crime is a learned behavior

Question 51

Social Control Theory

Answer 51

The view that everyone has the potential to become a criminal, but most people are controlled by their bonds to society; crime occurs when the forces that bind people to society are weakened or broken

Question 52

Social Reaction Theory/Labeling Theory

Answer 52

The view that people become criminals when significant members of society label them as such and they accept those labels as a personal identity

Question 53

Parental Efficacy

Answer 53

The ability of parents to be supportive of their children and effectively control them in non-coercive ways

Question 54

Differential Association Theory

Answer 54

The view that people commit crime when their social learning leads them to perceive more definitions favoring crime than favoring conventional behavior

Question 55

Culture Conflict

Answer 55

Result of exposure to opposing norms, attitudes, and definitions of right and wrong, moral and immoral

Question 56

Differential Reinforcement

Answer 56

Behavior is reinforced by being either rewarded or punished while interacting with others; also called direct conditioning

Question 57

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 57

Using either negative stimuli (punishment) or loss of reward (negative punishment) to curtail unwanted behaviors

Question 58

Neutralization Theory

Answer 58

The view that law violators learn to neutralize conventional values and attitudes, enabling them to drift back and forth between criminal and conventional behavior

Question 59

Drift

Answer 59

Movement in and out of delinquency, shifting between conventional and deviant values

Question 60

Neutralization Techniques

Answer 60

Methods of rationalizing deviant behavior, such as denying responsibility or blaming the victim

Question 61

Self-Control

Answer 61

A strong moral sense that renders a person incapable of hurting others or violating social norms

Question 62

Commitment to Conformity

Answer 62

Obedience to the rules of society and the avoidance of nonconforming behavior that may jeopardize an individual's reputation and achievement

Question 63

Moral Entrepreneur

Answer 63

A person who creates moral rules that reflect the values of those in power rather than any objective, universal standards of right and wrong

Question 64

Stigmatize

Answer 64

To apply negative labeling with enduring effects on a person's self-image and social interactions

Question 65

Successful Degradation Ceremony

Answer 65

A course of action or ritual in which someone's identity is publicly redefined and destroyed and he or she is thereafter viewed as socially unacceptable

Question 66

Retrospective Reading

Answer 66

The reassessment of a person's past to fit a current generalized label

Question 67

Primary Deviance

Answer 67

A norm violation or crime that has little or no long-term influence on the violator

Question 68

Secondary Deviance

Answer 68

A norm violation or crime that comes to the attention of significant others or social control agents, who apply a negative label that has long-term consequences for the violator's self-identity and social interactions

Question 69

Deviance Amplification

Answer 69

Process whereby secondary deviance pushes offenders out of mainstream society and locks them into an escalating cycle of deviance, apprehension, labeling, and criminal self-identity

Question 70

Racial Profiling

Answer 70

The use of racial and ethnic characteristics by police in their determining whether a person is likely to commit a crime or engage in deviant and/or antisocial activities

Question 71

Reflected Appraisal

Answer 71

When parents are alienated from their children, their negative labeling reduces their children's self-image and increase delinquency

Question 72

Diversion Programs

Answer 72

Programs of rehabilitation that remove offenders from the normal channels of the criminal justice process, thus enabling them to avoid the stigma of a criminal label

Question 73

Restitution

Answer 73

Permitting an offender to repay the victim or do useful work in the community rather than facing the stigma of a formal trial and a court-ordered sentence