UNIT 4 QUIZ

Question 1

Four types of feminist theory

Answer 1

1. Liberal feminist
2. Marxist feminist
3. Radical feminist
4. Socialist feminist

Question 2

Liberal Feminist

Answer 2

Gender socialization practices cause crime

Question 3

Marxist feminist

Answer 3

Class and gender division of labor combine to determine
the social position of both women and men

Question 4

Radical feminist

Answer 4

Crime is an expression of men’s need to control and
oppress women

Question 5

Socialist feminist

Answer 5

Examines the connections between capitalism and
patriarchy that leads women to subordination (merges Marxist & Radical)

Question 6

James Messerschmidt’s Double Marginality Theory

Answer 6

Crimes are actions that threaten the capitalist-patriarchal system
* Females experience “double marginality;” subordinate to the wealthy and males

Question 7

There are three reasons females are less likely to commit crime than males

Answer 7

1. Most serious crimes are “masculine” in nature
2. Females have less power in society, and thus, less opportunities for crime
3. Males control illegitimate opportunities; females are relegated to subordinate roles

Question 8

Feminist theory

Answer 8

• Feminist scholars have “gendered criminology” in important ways
• Transformed criminology so that gender is a central organizing theme
• Still remains at the margins of “male-stream” criminology

Question 9

Early perspective of feminist theory

Answer 9

result of individual biological and psychological characteristics of females
* Very controversial and unscientific by today’s standards
* Assumption that there was an “inherent nature” of women
* Men were “rational” in their criminal behavior; women were “irrational”
* Deviant or criminal females were just trying to be males

Question 10

1980s “Me Decade”

Answer 10

Culture of narcissism took hold and people focused on their own problems
* TV and movies showed that greed was not a bad thing

Question 11

“yuppies” (young urban professionals) generation

Answer 11

Self-centered materialists focused on “making it,” with no social conscience

Question 12

Five types of Conservative Crime Hypothesizing:

Answer 12

1. Revitalization of positivist emphasis on individual differences
2. Revitalization of psychological approach that offenders think differently
3. Linking of crime to a lenient culture or “moral poverty”
4. Incivility leads to crime because police tolerate minor violations
5. Idea that individuals choose crime when benefits exceed costs

Question 13

Conservative theory

Answer 13

believes that crime can be stopped through tough rules and strict repercussions for those who commit.

• “Get Tough on Crime!”
• Politicians and advocates for other policies are
  seen as “weak on crime” or “pro-criminal”

Question 14

James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein -Crime & Human Nature (1985)

Answer 14

• Outlined biosocial hypothesis focusing on genetics as predisposing crime
• Implied that these factors are disproportionately found among the poor
• Individual biological differences are influence social learning
• “Bad families produce bad children”

Question 15

criticism for human nature (1985)

Answer 15

1. Lack of concern for the applicability of their ideas
2. Doubts about generality for all criminal behavior
3. The authors were highly selective in what studies they
   reviewed
4. Did not consider racial- & class-biased sanctions in the system
5. Not peer-reviewed by fellow scholars and academics

Question 16

Social Darwinism

Answer 16

Suggested that minorities and the poor were both cognitively and
morally inferior by nature

Question 17

Richard Herrnstein & Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (1994)

Answer 17

Hypothesized that intelligence is the best single predictor of criminal
behavior
* Stated that different races have higher/lower average IQs than others
* People’s life chances are determined by cognitive resources
* Argued that the average IQ is decreasing due to:
* Intelligent people having fewer children
* People with lower IQs having more children

Question 18

William Bennett’s Moral Poverty Hypothesis (1994)

Answer 18

The “permissive culture in the U.S.” is the cause of crime
* The shortage of loving and responsible adults who teach right from wrong
* The solution to crime is to teach children morality to grow into healthy adults
* The culture of permissiveness should be replaced by virtue and religion

Question 19

Broken Windows Theory (1982)

Answer 19

Solution was placed on police using “zero-tolerance” & “quality-of-life” policing

• This formal control would allow informal control to flourish again
  New York City implemented these ideas in the 1990s and serious crime declined
• Potential issues with the conclusion that Broken Windows “worked”
• Economic prosperity and changes in the drug markets
• Crime was already declining before this policy
• Other cities without “zero-tolerance” policing also saw a decline
• Could have been a contributor to the decline in crime, but not definitive

Question 20

Broken window theory implications

Answer 20

• Emphasis on making sure that crime does not pay
• Two policy agendas:
  1. Incapacitation
  2. Deterrence
• Increase the costs of crime and restrain those “beyond reform”

Question 21

Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen’s Routine Activities Theory (1979)

Answer 21

If you decrease the opportunities for offending, crime will be reduced
* Focus on aspects of the environment that are most easily manipulated
* A crime requires a criminal with the ability to carry out their intentions

Question 22

Criminal Acts Require

Answer 22

1. Motivated offender with opportunity to act
2. Suitable target for the offender
3. Absence of capable guardians

Question 23

The “displacement effect”

Answer 23

When crime is more difficult in one location, offenders will move to another

Question 24

Rational Choice Theory

Answer 24

Offenders are “rational” in the decisions they make
* Choose offenses that:
* Offer immediate gratification
* Require little effort to complete
* Expose them to scant risk of detection and arrest
* People make calculated choices before they act
* Research shows offenders often select a specific location to commit crime

Question 25

Deterrence Theory

Answer 25

Lack of certainty
Lack of severity
Lack of celerity

Question 26

Perceptual Deterrence Theory

Answer 26

1. Does not assume offenders are rational
2. Focuses more on the perceptions of legal punishments
3. The policy proposals from perceptual deterrence theory are less clear

Question 27

What individuals thought their chances were of getting caught (“certainty”)
* What they thought would happen to them afterwards (“severity”)