- What three interrelated considerations have led to Hirschi’s enduring influence on criminological theory?
- His theories are stated parsimoniously, his theories are similar to other criminological theories, and his theories have been tested so many times that there is no need to continue conducting research
- His theories are controversial, his theories can explain individuals and/or groups, and his theories can be integrated with other criminological theories
*c. His theories are stated parsimoniously, his theories are controversial, and his theories are easily testable
- His theories argue that alternative perspectives are also correct, his theories are easily testable, and Hirschi’s theorizing is universally popular
Answer location: page 114
- Which of the following is the name of Hirschi’s first theory?
- Self bond theory
- Strain theory
*c. Social bond theory
- Conflict theory
Answer location: page 115
- The central premise of Hirschi’s first theory is that delinquency arises when _____ are weak or absent.
- social controls
*b. social bonds
- self-control
- self bonds
Answer location: page 115
- What two major paradigms was Hirschi trying to challenge when he first proposed social bond theory?
*a. Differential association theory (cultural deviance theory) and strain theory
- Social disorganization theory and conflict theory
- Social disorganization theory and differential association theory
- Labeling theory and strain theory
Answer location: page 115
- Hirschi’s social bond theory was _____ in nature.
- psychological
- biological
*c. sociological
- generational
Answer location: page 117
- Which of the following is not a school of thought Hirschi draws his theoretical premise from?
- Social disorganization
- Strain
*c. Durkheimian theory
- Conflict
Answer location: page 116
- While Hirschi was well aware at the time he wrote his theory that it was well within the ______ paradigm, he was especially careful to avoid working out of this framework because of its unpopularity at the time.
*a. Hobbesian
- Durkheimian
- Labeling
- Social disorganization
Answer location: page 117
- According to Hobbes, conformity was based essentially on _______.
- morals
- learned behavior
- trust
*d. fear
Answer location: page 117-118
- According to Hirschi, what is the key issue that needs to be explained from a control perspective?
- Why some individuals are more motivated to offend than others
*b. Why people, who are all motivated to seek immediate gratification in the easiest way possible, refrain from doing so
- What psychological traits make certain individuals more likely to commit crime
- What belief systems motivate individuals to commit crime
Answer location: page 118
- The presence and strength of social bonds can explain _______?
*a. change in offending
- stability in offending
- individuals’ motivations to commit crime
- how often a criminal gets caught
Answer location: page 119
- Which of the following is not a control factor for Hirschi?
- Attachment
*b. Conformity
- Commitment
- Belief
Answer location: page 119
- According to Hirschi, what is indirect control?
- When a child calls his parents to ask if it is okay to commit a crime
- When parents discipline their children for doing something wrong
*c. When children are not in the same location or physically separated from their parents but children refrain from offending because their attachment makes parents psychologically present
- When parents supervise their children while in their presence
Answer location: page 120
- Hirschi claims that youths who get good grades and have a stake in conformity will be less likely to commit delinquent acts. Which social bond is he describing?
- Attachment
*b. Commitment
- Involvement
- Belief
Answer location: page 120
- According to Hirschi, structured conventional activities take away changes to offend. What social bond is he referring to?
- Attachment
- Commitment
*c. Involvement
- Belief
Answer location: page 120
- Which of the following is not a limitation of Hirschi’s social bond theory?
- Hirschi asserts that all individuals are equally motivated to commit crimes
*b. The presence of social bonds is inversely related to delinquency and to adult crime
- Hirschi fails to explore how social bonds are potentially affected by the larger social forces in American society
- Hirschi asserts that social bond theory applied equally to African Americans and to Whites
Answer location: page 124-125
- Who set forth self-control theory?
- Sykes and Matza
- Freud
- Durkheim
*d. Gottfredson and Hirschi
Answer location: page 121
- According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, ______ is the restraint that allows people to resist crime.
- social bonding
*b. self-control
- internal morals
- prison
Answer location: page 126
- According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, the inculcation of self-control depends on what?
*a. The quality of parenting during a child’s early years
- The quality of parenting during a child’s adolescent years
- The quality of parenting during a child’s adult years
- An individual’s personality traits
Answer location: page 129
- In 2004, Hirschi revised his social control theory and redefined self-control as ______?
- having little attachment to your parents
- the strength of one’s social bonds
*c. the tendency to consider the full range of potential costs of a particular act
- the tendency to consider the full range of benefits of an illegal or deviant behavior
Answer location: page 135
- ______ studied the power relations between husbands and wives that shape the way their children are controlled.
- Gottfredson and Hirschi
*b. John Hagan
- Charles Tittle
- Mark Colvin
Answer location: page 136
- The theory in number 20 is called:
- Social bond theory
- Self-control theory
*c. Power-control theory
- Control balance theory
Answer location: page 136
- Which theorist coined control balance theory?
- Gottfredson and Hirschi
- John Hagan
*c. Charles Tittle
- Mark Colvin
Answer location: page 137
- The amount of control to which an individual is subject, relative to the amount of control he or she can exercise, determines the probability of deviance occurring as well as the type of deviance likely to occur. This is known as _______. (Page 130)
- control balance
- control deficit
- control surplus
*d. control ratio
Answer location: page 137
- Which theorist is associated with differential coercion theory?
- Gottfredson and Hirschi
- John Hagan
- Charles Tittle
*d. Mark Colvin
Answer location: page 140
- Which of the following is not a policy implication of control theories?
*a. Get tough policies
- School programs
- Re-entry programs
- Parent-child attachment programs
Answer location: page 145-147
- thesis suggests that self-control is a limited resource. Criminal conduct thus might be expected to increase in situations where people must repeatedly exercise self-control (e.g., when under strain).
- Desistence
*b. Depletion
- Decreasing
- Limited
Answer location: page 132
- support is giving someone the resources needed to reach a goal.
- Expressive
- External
*c. Instrumental
- Internal
Answer location: page 144
- The central premise of Hirschi’s first theory is that delinquency arises when social bonds are weak or absent.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 115
- Sociologists such as Marx and Bentham heavily influenced Hirschi’s theoretical position when he first proposed social bond theory.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 115
- Control theorists ask the question “why don’t they do it?” rather than “why do they do it?”
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 115
- The bond of attachment is the emotional closeness that youths have with adults, with parents typically being the most important.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 120
- The bond of commitment refers to the extent to which adolescents embrace the moral validity of the law and other conventional normative standards.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 121
- Empirical tests of Hirschi’s social bond theory seem to suggest that the presence of social bonds is inversely related to delinquency and to adult crime.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 124
- Gottfredson and Hirschi’s self-control theory is not a control theory.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 125
- According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, self-control is the restraint that allows people to resist crime and other short-term gratification.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 126
- A General Theory of Crime, written by Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990), departs significantly from Hirschi’s earlier work in Causes of Delinquency (1969).
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 125
- Tittle argues that deviance will occur both when there is too little control or too much control.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 137
- According to Hirschi, in patriarchal families, boys have stronger preferences for risk taking that increase their involvement in delinquency.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 136
- According to Tittle, the potential for the predisposition to develop a motivation to deviate lies in human nature.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 138
- Gottfredson favors creating a less coercive society in which people’s human needs are given priority by government policies.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 142
- Hagan argues that in patriarchal homes, girls are more likely to engage in delinquency than are boys.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 136
- Control theories that focus on explaining juvenile delinquency tend to locate control influences primarily in the family and secondary in the school.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 135
- Gottfredson and Hirschi emphasized change in wayward behavior across the lifecourse.
- true
*b. false
- Expressive support might involve boosting a child’s self-esteem after a failure, listening to a friend express anger and frustration, or hugging someone to validate their worth and identify.
*a. true
- false
Type: E
- According to Hirschi, which institutions help the adolescent form social bonds?
*a. For Hirschi, the control resides in a person’s ties to conventional society—to its adult members (parents, teachers), its institutions (family, school), and its beliefs (laws, normative standards). The control thus lies in a person’s relationship to society. Hirschi called these different kinds of ties or relationships social bonds. He identified four social bonds: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief; these are discussed below in detail.
Type: E
- Briefly explain Hirschi’s four social bonds.
*a. See Table 6.1
Type: E
- What is the question that all control theorists ask? What is their reasoning behind this?
*a. Why don’t they do it? Why don’t they commit crimes to get what they want? Believed that the key issue is to explain why people, all of whom are motivated to seek immediate gratification in the easiest way possible, refrain from doing so.
Type: E
- According to Hirschi, on what is the inculcation of self-control dependent?
*a. parenting
Type: E
- Explain how variation in social bonds explains variation in crime.
*a. For Hirschi, variation in social bonds thus explains variation in crime. The stronger the bond, the more likely criminal enticements will be controlled and that conformity will ensue; the weaker the bond, the more likely individuals will succumb to their desires and break the law. This returns us, then, to the question, “Why don’t they do it?” The answer should be clear: People do not engage in crime—they do not act on their desire for gratification—because they are stopped from doing so by their social bonds. In short, social bonds control their attraction to illegal temptations and ensure their conformity.
Type: E
- How does the presence and strength of social bonds explain change in offending?
*a. Importantly, the stability of the social bond is not a given. The social bond remains strong only so long as it is nourished by interaction with conventional others. If youngsters become distant from parents, give up on going to college and caring about grades, or are cut from sports teams, their bonds can attenuate. And if bonds weaken, crime can take place. Because bonds can vary in strength across time—for example, weaker in the teenage years, stronger before and after—people can move into and out of illegal conduct. Adult offenders might desist from crime if they enter a quality marriage or get a good job. In short, the presence and strength of social bonds can explain change in offending.
Type: E
- According to Gottfredson and Hirschi, what is self-control?
*a. Rhe restraint that allows people to resist crime.
Type: E
- What two aspects do Hagan’s power-control theory and Gottfredson and Hirschi’s self-control theory share?
*a. First, Hagan (1989) contended that delinquency is more likely when a person has a preference for taking risks, an orientation that Gottfredson and Hirschi saw as central to a lack of self-control. Second, both approaches believe that personal orientations, whether risk taking or self-control, are established by the nature of parenting. In short, families are incubators for or prophylactics against criminal involvement.
Type: E
- In Tittle’s control balance theory, what does control balance tend to be associated with? What does control imbalance tend to be associated with?
*a. Control balance tends to be associated with conformity, and control imbalance tends to be associated with deviance.
Type: E
- List the six characteristics or elements of self-control.
*a. Impulsive, insensitive, physical (as opposed to mental), risk-taking, shortsighted, and nonverbal
Type: E
- What are the three core assertions of social support theory?
*a. Social support reduces crime; social support makes control more effective;s ocial support reduces crime by increasing prosocial and decreasing antisocial influences
Type: E
- Compare and contrast Hirschi’s social bond theory and Gottfredson and Hirschi’s self-control theory. What are the contradictions? Which theory do you agree with more? Why?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 114-136
Type: E
- Explain in detail Hirschi’s forerunners. That is, what predecessors and what perspectives influenced Hirschi in his formulation of social bond theory? What are the differences between Hirschi’s own theoretical position and the positions of other theorists before his time? What positions were Hirschi’s ideas most in line with?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 114-136
Type: E
- Explain Tittle’s control balance theory. How has control balance theory been assessed?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 137-139
Type: E
- Control theory has tended to be in accordance with various prevention and intervention efforts that have been around for decades and that to many have become a matter of “common sense.” Explain the policy implications of such control theories. Where are policies based on control theories lacking?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 145-147
Type: E
- What is differential coercion theory? Make sure to discuss the different types of coercion to assist in explaining the answer. How has the differential coercion theory been assessed?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 140-142
Type: E
- Describe what parents must do to establish self-control in their children and how they may fail at establishing self-control.
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 128-129
Type: E
- Describe the origins of social support theory.
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 142-143
Test_Ch07
- ______ argue that the criminal justice system anchors people in criminal careers.
*a. Labeling theorists
- Strain theorists
- Social control theorist
- Classical theorists
Answer location: page 149
- Labeling theorists view crime as _______.
- physically constructed
*b. socially constructed
- naturally constructed
- emotionally constructed
Answer location: page 150
- What scholar studied how affluent women “invented delinquency” through their successful campaign to create a court exclusively for juveniles?
- John Braithwaite
- Kathleen Tierney
*c. Anthony Platt
- Howard Becker
Answer location: page 151
- A lawbreaker’s behavior is only one factor in determining whether a criminal _____ is conferred.
- policy
- code
- law
*d. label
Answer location: page 152
- According to labeling theory, the nature of ______ to crime and the reality it constructs, not the nature of the act per se, determines whether a crime has occurred.
- political perceptions
- individual reactions
*c. societal reactions
- criminal reactions
Answer location: page 150
- According to labeling theorists, _____ created crime rather than halted crime.
- social morality
- religion
*c. state intervention
- education
Answer location: page 153
- ______ was perhaps the earliest scholar to state in general terms the principles that state intervention is criminogenic because it dramatizes evil.
- Lombroso
- Bentham
- Braithwaite
*d. Tannenbaum
Answer location: page 153-154
- According to Edwin Lemert, ______ deviance occurs when the offender tries to rationalize the behavior as a temporary aberration or sees it as part of a socially acceptable role.
*a. primary
- secondary
- tertiary
- initial
Answer location: page 154
- According to Edwin Lemert, _____ deviance occurs when social reaction intensifies progressively with each act of primary deviance, and the offender becomes stigmatized.
- primary
*b. secondary
- tertiary
- initial
Answer location: page 154
- Which of the following scholars did not contribute to labeling theory’s ascendancy?
- Howard Becker
*b. Travis Hirsch
- Kai Erikson
- John Kitsuse
Answer location: page 155
- Labeling theorists borrowed ______ concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy.
*a. Merton’s
- Freud’s
- Braithwaite’s
- Tannenbaum’s
Answer location: page 155
- The abrogation of ties to conventional society is most probable when state intervention involves what?
- Community service
- Community supervision
*c. Institutionalization
- Probation
Answer location: page 156
- For labeling theorists, _____ policies ultimately will prove self-defeating.
- restorative
- integrative
- rehabilitative
*d. get-tough
Answer location: page 156
- ______ scholars argued that the origins and application of criminal labels were influenced fundamentally by inequities rooted in the very structure of capitalism
*a. Radical
- Positivist
- Strain
- Life-course
Answer location: page 147
- In a 1986 study, Robert Sampson found that even when he took into account the seriousness of the offense, police were found to be more likely to make arrests in _____ neighborhoods than in _____ neighborhoods.
- more affluent; poor
- African American; white
*c. poor; more affluent
- heterogeneous; homogenous
Answer location: page 157
- In a study conducted by Chiricos and his colleagues (2007), all of the following differential labeling effects were detected for individuals with a felony status except for ______.
- whites
- women
- individuals with no prior conviction before age 30
*d. individuals who were from a more affluent neighborhood
Answer location: page 161
- Which of the following is not a policy implied by labeling theory?
- Decriminalization
- Diversion
- Due process
*d. Denial
Answer location: page 163-166
- _____ is defined as the removal of many forms of conduct from the scope of the criminal law.
- Diversion
- Due Process
*c. Decriminalization
- Deinstitutionalization
Answer location: page 164
- What policy might entail taking youths from the province of the juvenile court and placing them under the auspices of youth service bureaus, welfare agencies, or special schools?
- Decriminalization
*b. Diversion
- Due Process
- Deinstitutionalization
Answer location: page 164-165
- What policy has had the effect of increasing state intervention or “widening the net” of state control?
- Deinstitutionalization
- Due process
- Decriminalization
*d. Diversion
Answer location: page 164-165
- What policy eliminated discretionary abuse and forced judges to sentence according to written codes and not according to whim?
- Diversion
*b. Due process
- Decriminalization
- Deinstitutionalization
Answer location: page 165-166
- The policy of ______ refers to the lessening of prison populations and instead, placing offenders in community programs
*a. deinstitutionalization
- decriminalization
- due process
- diversion
Answer location: page 166
- _____ shaming stigmatizes and excludes, thereby creating a class of outcasts.
- Reintegrative
*b. Disintegrative
- Criminal
- Stigmatizing
Answer location: page 167
- The underlying _____ determines the degree to which shaming will be reintegrative or disintegrative
- individual response
- societal response
*c. social context
- world view
Answer location: page 168
- _____ is defined as the net increase in the prevalence, incidence, or seriousness of future offending against a sanctioning community caused by a proud, shameless reaction to the administration of a criminal sanction.
- Reintegration
- Coerced Mobility
- Shaming
*d. Defiance
Answer location: page 169
- ______ is defined as a practice that regularly takes large numbers of males out of inner-city communities for prolonged absences
- Defiance
*b. Coerced mobility
- Reintegration
- Shaming
Answer location: page 170
- argues that police are more likely to arrest minorities because they are more likely to be deployed in greater numbers to inner-city neighborhoods whose residents are disproportionately people of color.
- Patrol
- Disproportionate
*c. Deployment
- Dispatch
Answer location: page 158
- Labeling theorists believe that pulling people into the system is better than allowing people to roam the streets.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 149
- Nearly one in three African American males between 20 and 29 years of age are under some form of control by the criminal justice system.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 149
- A lawbreaker’s behavior is only one factor and maybe not even the most important factor in determining whether a criminal label is conferred.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 152
- Labeling theorists claim that state intervention created crime rather than halted crime.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 153
- The idea that criminal justice intervention can deepen criminality originated with the labeling theorists of the 1960s.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 153
- According to labeling theorists, societal reaction is not very integral to the creation of crime and deviance.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 155
- According to labeling theory, people who are stigmatized as criminal often are cut off from previous prosocial relationships.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 156
- Radical scholars assessed the premise that extralegal factors, such as an offender’s race, class, and gender, are more important in regulating criminal justice labeling than are legal factors, such as the seriousness of the offense or the offender’s past record.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 157
- Labeling theory in recent years is enjoying a resurgence of interest and growing empirical support because recent literature claims that state intervention is a criminogenic risk factor, rather than the major cause of crime.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 160
- The policy of decriminalization has encouraged some significant legal changes over the last several years. For example, abortion was legalized and possession of small amounts of marijuana frequently was reduced to a minor violation during the 1960s.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 164
- The policy of due process seeks to extend legal protections to offenders.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 165
- Theorists who have made attempts to extend labeling theory have now recognized that under certain circumstances, criminal justice sanctions might reduce recidivism—a possibility fully discounted by earlier labeling theorists.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 167
- Restorative justice suggests that the guiding principles of the criminal sanction should be to decrease harm by reinstating the harm that was done to the victim and the offender to the community.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 172
- Jeremy Bentham is the theorist associated with restorative justice.
- true
*b. false
Answer location: page 171-172
- According to coerced mobility theory, offenders tend to return to their neighborhoods more of a liability than when they left.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 171
- Racial threat theory argues that the level of social control exercised by the majority group, Whites, will increase as the number of minorities in an area, African Americans, grows.
*a. true
- false
Answer location: page 158
Type: E
- In general, what do labeling theorists argue?
*a. Rather than diminishing criminal involvement, state intervention— labeling and reacting to offenders as “criminals” and “ex-felons”—can have the unanticipated and ironic consequence of deepening the very behavior it was meant to halt.
Type: E
- What oversight did labeling theorists seek to correct?
*a. Scholars failed to explore the social circumstances that determine which behaviors are made criminal, why some people have the label of criminal applied to them, and what consequences exist for those bearing a criminal label.
Type: E
- Briefly explain the concept of the “self-fulfilling prophecy.”
*a. The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true.”
Type: E
- What are labeling theory’s two principal propositions?
*a. First, extra-legal factors, not behavior alone, shaped who was labeled; and second, labeling increased criminal involvement.
Type: E
- Explain the concept of a “legitimacy crisis” or a “confidence gap.”
*a. Citizens no longer trusted the motives or competence of government officials.
Type: E
- Identify and briefly explain the two important attempts that have been made to develop a theory of how the quality of sanctioning affects reoffending.
*a. Page 167-171
Type: E
- What is defiance?
*a. The net increase in the prevalence, incidence, or seriousness of future offending against a sanctioning community caused by a proud, shameless reaction to the administration of a criminal sanction.
Type: E
- What is coerced mobility?
*a. A practice that regularly takes large numbers of males out of inner-city communities for prolonged absences.
Type: E
- What principles are needed for an effective reentry program?
*a. Models or principles of how to develop an effective reentry program also are emerging, generally emphasizing the need (1) to start reentry preparation while offenders are in prison, (2) to focus on the challenges and crises that are faced immediately upon release (e.g., food, shelter, job), and (3) to provide treatment services and support to facilitate long-term community reintegration.
Type: E
- What are the guiding principles of restorative justice?
*a. The guiding principle of the criminal sanction should be to decrease harm by restoring (1) the victim to his or her prior unharmed status and (2) the offender to the community. Instead of a traditional trial in which the state is an adversary prosecuting defendants, such advocates favor a victim–offender conference in which the state functions more as a mediator.
Type: E
- What is meant by the New Jim Crow?
*a. These are collateral consequences of conviction. During the Jim Crow era in the United States (1876 until 1965), African Americans were excluded from voting in the South and from full participation in American life through an array of poll taxes, legalized segregation, and violent threats. Now, with so many Blacks pulled into the criminal justice system and having criminal convictions, African Americans in particular experience legalized exclusion in voting, government benefits, and employment requiring state licensure.
Type: E
- According to labeling theorists, most offenders are defined falsely as criminal. Explain, in detail what this means. Make sure to explain what this falseness is tied to and what it is not tied to. What is the self-fulfilling prophecy and how is it fulfilled?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 150-156
Type: E
- Labeling theorists argue that ties to conventional society are most likely to be severed when state intervention involves institutionalization. Explain, in detail, what imprisonment entails for an offender. How does it change an individual’s every day life once released or what limitations are placed on an individual once they leave a facility?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 171-173
Type: E
- Explain the criticisms of labeling theory’s two principal propositions. What are the two propositions and what do critics have to say about them? Dos labeling theory have any supporters? If so, who supports the theory and why?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 156-162
Type: E
- List and explain the four policies, according to labeling theorists, which promised to reduce the intrusion of the state into offender’s lives. Were the labeling theorists correct in their assumption? Why or why not?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 163-166
Type: E
- Explain Braithwaite’s theory of shaming and crime. How has Braithwaite’s theory enriched labeling theory? Do you agree with this theory? Why or why not?
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 167-168; 171-173
Type: E
- Describe the three components of focal concerns theory.
*a. answers vary
Answer location: page 159
