Deviance And Crime

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

In Robert Menton’s theory of structural strain, seeking culturally approved goals by culturally approved means.

Question 2

Corporate Crimes

Answer 2

Illegal activities committed on behalf of a formal organization.

Question 3

Crime

Answer 3

A violation of a norm that has been entered into the law and is backed by the power and authority of the state.

Question 4

Deviance

Answer 4

Behavior that the members of a social group define as violating their norms.

Question 5

Differential Association

Answer 5

The process by which people are socialized into the patterns of behavior that prevail in the group with which they associate the most. If these patterns of behavior are deviant , deviance is culturally transmitted.

Question 6

Formal Sanctions

Answer 6

Official pressure to conform to the social norms and values enforced by organizations such as police departments, courts, and prisons.

Question 7

Informal Sanctions

Answer 7

Unofficial pressures to conform, including disapproval, ridicule, and ostracism on the one hand (negative sanctions) and approval and praise on the other (positive sanctions).

Question 8

Innovation

Answer 8

In Robert Merton’s theory of structural strain, pursuing culturally approved goals by deviant means.

Question 9

Internalization

Answer 9

The process by which cultural standards become part of a person’s personality structure.

Question 10

Labeling Theory

Answer 10

The theory that people come to acquire a deviant social identity and pursue a deviant lifestyle because others have labeled them deviant and cut them from the social mainstream.

Question 11

Organized Crime

Answer 11

A self-perpetuating conspiracy that operates for profit and power and that seeks immunity from the law through fear and corruption. Organized crime specializes in providing illegal goods and services.

Question 12

Plea Bargaining

Answer 12

The process by which a district attorney offers to reduce charges if a suspect will plead guilty and relinquish the right to a trial.

Question 13

Primary Deviance

Answer 13

The initial violation of a social norm, about which no interferences are made regarding the motives or character of the person who committed the act.

Question 14

Rebellion

Answer 14

In Robert Merton’s theory of structural strain, creating new goals and new means for pursuing them.

Question 15

Retreatism

Answer 15

In Robert Merton’s theory of structural strain, abandoning culturally prescribed goals and means.

Question 16

Ritualism

Answer 16

In Robert Merton’s theory of structural strain, adhering rigidly to norms, while losing sight of underlying goals.

Question 17

Sanctions

Answer 17

Rewards for conforming to a social norm or penalty for violating it.

Question 18

Secondary Deviance

Answer 18

A pattern by which people come to define themselves as deviants and undertake a deviant lifestyle as reaction to their being labeled deviant by others.

Question 19

Social Control

Answer 19

Society’s efforts to regulate itself; the mechanism by which social norms are upheld and by which their actual or potential violation is restrained.

Question 20

Victimless Crime

Answer 20

Crimes such as gambling and prostitution that often appear to lack victims (people who feel they have been harmed by them).

Question 21

Violent Crimes

Answer 21

Crimes such as murdering, assault, and rape that involve an act of physical violence against the victim.

Question 22

White-Collar Crimes

Answer 22

Crime committed by people of high status in the course of their occupations.