Module 2 Vocab

Question 1

Criminology

Answer 1

The scientific study of crime and the causes of criminal behavior

Question 2

Correlation

Answer 2

The relationship between two measurements or behaviors that lend to more in the same direction

Question 3

Causation

Answer 3

The relationship in which a change in one measurement or behavior creates a recognizable change in another measurement or behavior

Question 4

Theory

Answer 4

An explanation ofa happening or circumstance that is based on observation, experimentation, and reasoning

Question 5

Choice theory

Answer 5

A school of criminology based on the belief that individuals have free will to engage in any behavior including criminal behavior

Question 6

Classical criminology

Answer 6

A school of criminology that holds the wrongdoers act as the weight of possible benefits vs. The expected costs of being apprehended

Question 7

Positivism

Answer 7

A school of the social sciences that sees criminal and delinquent behavior as the result of biological, social, and psychological forces

Question 8

Seduction of crime

Answer 8

The thrill of a crime drives the criminal to commit more

Question 9

Neurocriminology

Answer 9

The study of how genetics and brain activity influence criminal behavior

Question 10

Psychoanalytic theory

Answer 10

Sigmund freud’S theory that attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives

Question 11

Social psychology

Answer 11

Focuses on human behavior in the context of how human beings relate and influence one another

Question 12

Sociology

Answer 12

The study of the development and functioning of groups of people who live together within a society

Question 13

Social disorganization theory

Answer 13

Deviant behavior is more likely in communities where social institutions (family, etc.) fail to exert control over the population

Question 14

Strain theory

Answer 14

The assumption that crime is a result of frustration felt by individuals who cannot reach their financial and personal goals through legitimate means

Question 15

Anomie

Answer 15

A condition in which the individual feels a disconnect from society due to the breakdown or absence of social norms

Question 16

Cultural deviance theory

Answer 16

Branch of social structure theory based on the assumptions that members of certain subcultures reject the values of the dominant culture by exhibiting deviant behavior patterns

Question 17

Subculture

Answer 17

Subdivision that exists within the dominant culture

Question 18

Social conflict theories

Answer 18

A theory that views criminal behavior as the result of class conflict

Question 19

Social reality of crime

Answer 19

Theory that criminal laws are designed by those in power to help them keep power at the expense of those who do not have power

Question 20

Social process theories

Answer 20

Theories that consider criminal behavior to be the predictable result of a person’s interaction with the surrounding environment

Question 21

Learning theory

Answer 21

The theory that delinquents and criminals must be taught both practical and emotional
Skills necessary to participate in legal activity

Question 22

Control theory

Answer 22

A series of theories that assume that all individuals have the potential for criminal behavior, but are restrained by the effect of such actions on close relationships

Question 23

Labeling theory

Answer 23

Hypothesis that society creates crime by labeling certain behavior an people as deviant

Question 24

Life Course criminology

Answer 24

The study of crime based on the belief that behavioral patterns developed in childhood car predict criminal activity later in life

Question 25

Medical model of addiction

Answer 25

An approach to drug addiction that treats drug abuse a mental illness, and focuses on treating and rehabilitating offenders rather than punishing them

Question 26

Criminal model of addiction

Answer 26

Holds the drug offenders harm to society by their actions to the same extent as other criminals

Question 27

Chronic offender

Answer 27

Aka career criminal, A delinquent or criminal who has committed multiple offenses

Question 28

Recidivism

Answer 28

The act of committing a new crime after having been punished for a previous crime by being convicted and sent to prison