CRIMINOLOGY THEORIES
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM SCRIPT VERIFIED
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS GRADED
APLUS
●● How does the legal definition of crime change over time?
Answer: Laws can be redefined, making previously legal behaviors
criminal and vice versa, as seen in Prohibition and marijuana laws.
●● What is the foundational insight of criminology?
Answer: Crime is a social construction produced through legal systems,
institutions, and processes of meaning-making.
●● How does deviance differ from crime?
Answer: Deviance refers to behavior that violates cultural expectations,
while crime refers to behavior formally prohibited by law.
●● What enforces deviance compared to crime?
Answer: Deviance is enforced informally through social pressure, while
crime is enforced by official state institutions.
●● What is the significance of the power to define crime?
,Answer: The power to define crime determines whose behavior gets
punished and whose gets protected.
●● What does the constructivist perspective in criminology emphasize?
Answer: It emphasizes that legal categories of crime are actively
produced through communication and interpretation.
●● What are some questions criminologists ask from a constructivist
perspective?
Answer: They ask how legal categories of crime emerge, how they are
applied, and who benefits from criminalization.
●● What is the first operative form in the framework for analyzing
crime?
Answer: Distinction, which separates criminal from non-criminal
behavior.
●● What does the operative form of 'indication' refer to?
Answer: It refers to how systems of meaning signal or indicate what is
considered criminal or non-criminal.
●● Why is the distinction between criminal and non-criminal behavior
significant?
, Answer: It reflects choices about what matters and whose perspective
organizes the division.
●● What role do historical processes play in the definition of crime?
Answer: Historical processes shape which meanings become settled and
institutionalized in law.
●● How can the legal definition of harm be seen as a social and political
process?
Answer: It reflects power dynamics, history, and institutional interests
rather than a neutral standard of justice.
●● What is the relationship between crime and societal response?
Answer: Crime is a product of how societies choose to define and
respond to behavior through law.
●● What is the impact of cultural differences on deviance?
Answer: What counts as deviant behavior varies across cultures and
historical periods.
●● What is the consequence of labeling certain behaviors as crimes?
Answer: It determines legal repercussions and societal stigma for those
behaviors.
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM SCRIPT VERIFIED
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS GRADED
APLUS
●● How does the legal definition of crime change over time?
Answer: Laws can be redefined, making previously legal behaviors
criminal and vice versa, as seen in Prohibition and marijuana laws.
●● What is the foundational insight of criminology?
Answer: Crime is a social construction produced through legal systems,
institutions, and processes of meaning-making.
●● How does deviance differ from crime?
Answer: Deviance refers to behavior that violates cultural expectations,
while crime refers to behavior formally prohibited by law.
●● What enforces deviance compared to crime?
Answer: Deviance is enforced informally through social pressure, while
crime is enforced by official state institutions.
●● What is the significance of the power to define crime?
,Answer: The power to define crime determines whose behavior gets
punished and whose gets protected.
●● What does the constructivist perspective in criminology emphasize?
Answer: It emphasizes that legal categories of crime are actively
produced through communication and interpretation.
●● What are some questions criminologists ask from a constructivist
perspective?
Answer: They ask how legal categories of crime emerge, how they are
applied, and who benefits from criminalization.
●● What is the first operative form in the framework for analyzing
crime?
Answer: Distinction, which separates criminal from non-criminal
behavior.
●● What does the operative form of 'indication' refer to?
Answer: It refers to how systems of meaning signal or indicate what is
considered criminal or non-criminal.
●● Why is the distinction between criminal and non-criminal behavior
significant?
, Answer: It reflects choices about what matters and whose perspective
organizes the division.
●● What role do historical processes play in the definition of crime?
Answer: Historical processes shape which meanings become settled and
institutionalized in law.
●● How can the legal definition of harm be seen as a social and political
process?
Answer: It reflects power dynamics, history, and institutional interests
rather than a neutral standard of justice.
●● What is the relationship between crime and societal response?
Answer: Crime is a product of how societies choose to define and
respond to behavior through law.
●● What is the impact of cultural differences on deviance?
Answer: What counts as deviant behavior varies across cultures and
historical periods.
●● What is the consequence of labeling certain behaviors as crimes?
Answer: It determines legal repercussions and societal stigma for those
behaviors.
