- Definitions of “violent behaviour” include which of the following components?
a) It is an intentional act.
b) It must result in serious injury.
c) The victim is non-consenting.
d) Both A and B
e) Both A and C
- Compared to criminal behaviour, which of the following is true of antisocial behaviour?
a) It may not violate criminal laws.
b) It violates personal rights and/or social standards.
c) It is adaptive.
d) Both A and C
e) All of the above
- Van Langen and colleagues (2014) examined the link between empathy and criminal behaviour across 38 separate studies with a total of more than 6000 participants. They found that offenders displayed lower levels of empathy than non-offenders. Their study illustrates which of the following research designs?
a) Quasi-experimental design
b) Experimental design
c) Case study
d) Meta-analysis
e) Longitudinal design
- In contrast to criminal behaviour, which of the following is true of antisocial behaviour?
a) It is prosocial.
b) It is adaptive.
c) It is maladaptive.
d) It is always instrumental.
e) It always violates criminal laws.
- Longitudinal research has consistently found that a small proportion of individuals are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime. In other words, some people never commit a crime, while a few people are persistent offenders. What is this evidence of?
a) Inter-individual differences
b) Coercion theory
c) Intra-individual differences
d) Cheater theory
e) Macro-theory
- The age-crime curve shows that many adolescents engage in some form of criminal behaviour or deviance but, in many cases, these individuals “grow out” of crime by early adulthood. This phenomenon best illustrates which of the following?
a) Crime fatigue
b) Cohort familiarity
c) Inter-individual differences
d) Instrumental violence
e) Intra-individual differences
- Instrumental violence is characterized by which of the following?
a) High emotional arousal
b) A preceding provocation
c) Victims who are closely related to the perpetrator
d) An absence of emotional arousal
e) Spontaneity
- Reactive violence is characterized by which of the following?
a) Attacks against persons whom are closely related to the offender
b) Spontaneous acts of violence
c) High emotional arousal
d) A prior provocation
e) All of the above
- The ________ perspective focuses on the influence of social groups and society on criminal behaviour, while the ________ perspective focuses on the mental processes and behaviour of individuals who engage in crime.
a) psychological; sociological
b) cross-sectional; longitudinal
c) proximal; distal
d) longitudinal; cross-sectional
e) sociological; psychological
- In the Philadelphia birth cohort study, the researchers studied a cohort of males born in 1945 in Philadelphia for approximately eight years (from age 10 to 18 years) to examine causes of delinquency. What is this study an example of?
a) Experimental research design
b) Quasi-experimental research design
c) Meta-analysis
d) Cross-sectional research design
e) Longitudinal research design
- A good theory of criminal behaviour must be able to account for which factors?
a) Inter-individual differences
b) Intra-individual differences
c) Manuscript typos
d) Both A and B
e) All of the above
- A researcher interested in examining why the homicide rate in Canada is so much lower than what is observed in the United States would most likely be using which type or category of theory?
a) Critical legal theory
b) Common sense
c) Personality theory
d) Micro theory
e) Macro theory
- A protest group complains that Facebook has banned a photo of a mother breastfeeding her child while allowing men to post topless photos of themselves. The protest group argues that this censorship is arbitrary and adversely targets women. This example of censorship is consistent with which theory?
a) Macro theory of crime
b) Consensus theory of crime
c) Conflict theory of crime
d) Evolutionary theory of crime
e) Personality theory of crime
- A review of criminal laws from different jurisdictions across the world reveals that certain behaviours, such as homicide, are universally considered to be criminal. Considering homicide to be illegal is consistent with which theory?
a) Consensus theory of crime
b) Micro theory of crime
c) Longitudinal theory of crime
d) Macro theory of crime
e) Conflict theory of crime
- If you have developed a set of interconnected statements about how viewing violent media is related to violent behaviour in the real world, then what have you developed?
a) Podcast
b) Theory
c) Montage
d) Time paradox
e) Pilot episode
Short Answer Questions
- Compare and contrast instrumental violence and reactive violence.
- What is criminal behaviour? How is crime socially constructed?
- Define the age-crime curve. Using the age-crime curve, distinguish between inter- and intra-individual differences.
- Identify three basic research designs and outline their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Essay Questions
- Develop three different studies to test the theory that there is a relationship between viewing violent media and real-world aggression. In your answer, provide a definition of theory, and distinguish between major types of theory that might explain the above relationship. In addition, each proposed study should reflect the different research designs discussed in this chapter.
- For this question use the following example:
In the winter and early spring of 2017, the University of California at Berkley experienced several violent protests. The protests concerned proposed public speakers and the right to free speech, and resulted in conflicts between extreme right- and left-wing political groups. Both sides of the dispute have attempted to legitimize their actions.
What is criminal behaviour? Examine violent behaviour from both a consensus and a conflict approach and comment on whether violence can ever be legitimized. Does violence at protests, including violence that might be deemed hateful, fit with definitions of violent behaviour in Chapter 1?
Answer Key
Multiple Choice Questions
- e (pp. 5–6)
- d (pp. 3–4)
- d (p. 14)
- c (pp. 3–4)
- a (p. 12)
- e (pp. 8–9)
- d (p. 7)
- e (p. 7)
- e (pp. 7–8)
- e (pp. 9–10)
- a (pp. 7–8)
- e (p. 7)
- c (p. 4)
- a (p. 4)
- b (p. 8)
Short Answer Questions
- The two types of violence differ in terms of their definition, planning, emotional arousal, and relationship to the victim. For example, reactive violence is typically a spontaneous act, while instrumental violence is associated with planned acts of violence. See Table 1.1 on Page 7. (p. 7)
- Criminal behaviour refers to an act or omission that is legally defined as crime. However, crime is socially constructed. This refers to the process of defining crime as a social and political process that reflects moral beliefs about right and wrong. For some behaviours, like the killing of another person, there is largely consensus in society about the inherent immoral nature of the behaviour (consensus theory of crime). For other behaviours, some critics argue that powerful social groups define behaviours as illegal to maintain a position of dominance (conflict theory of crime). (pp. 3–5)
- The age-crime curve refers to the distribution of criminal behaviour over the lifespan, which consistently shows that crime rates rise sharply throughout adolescence, peak in early adulthood, and taper off during middle and old age.
The age-crime curve shows that the majority of crimes are committed by a small proportion of chronic offenders, which illustrates inter-individual differences (variations that exist between two or more individuals).
The age-crime curve also shows that many adolescents engage in minor forms of crime but desist as they get older, illustrating intra-individual differences (variations occurring within the same person). (pp. 8–10)
- (1) Case study: an in-depth examination or observation of a single individual. Provides a rich source of information that can be useful for studying novel, unusual, or complex behaviours in real-life contexts, but there is rarely any way to verify scientifically whether suppositions regarding the causes of someone’s behaviour are correct and the extent to which they explain the behaviour of other offenders.
(2) Longitudinal research design: a research design that involves making several observations of the same study participants over a period of time. Tends to be expensive and time-consuming.
(3) Classic experimental design: a design using random assignment of study participants, an experimental group, and a control group. Permits causal inferences, but trying to control extraneous factors is difficult. (pp. 10–13)
Essay Questions
- ● Define “theory”
- Distinguish between micro- and macro-theories
- Each proposed study should include definitions and demonstrate clear understandings of (a) the case study design, (b) a longitudinal design, and (c) an experimental design. (pp. 8–15)
- ● Define criminal behaviour
- Define social construction of crime
- Compare and contrast the consensus and conflict theories of crime
- Define violence
- Compare and contrast different types of violent behaviour (pp. 3–7)
