Criminology - Unit 3 Exam Questions and Correct Answers Latest Update 2025 (Rated A+)
symbolic interactionism - Answers how we interact with others through actions, gestures, symbols, etc.;
concerned with the way that meanings arise in social interaction through communication using language
or symbols
George Herbert Mead (1934) - Answers main theorist of symbolic interactionism
looking glass self - Answers observing your behavior from other people's perspective
labeling theory - Answers people enter into law-violating careers when they are labeled for their acts
and organize their personalities around those labels
Lemert (1951) - Answers main theorist of labeling theory
Two questions with which labeling theory is concerned - Answers (1) How does society label some
people and their behavior as deviant?
(2) What affects do those labels have on the future lives and behaviors of those who have been labeled?
primary deviance - Answers initial act of deviance
secondary deviance - Answers acts that result in getting caught, punished, and labeled by society
status degradation ceremony - Answers when one is publicly declared a criminal
labeling process (8 steps) - Answers 1) primary deviant act
2) social reaction
3) negative label
4) degradation ceremony
5) self-labeling
6) association with a deviant subculture
7) deviance amplification
8) secondary deviance
Sykes and Matza (1957) - Answers theorists of neutralization techniques
Techniques of Neutralization (ways of crime justification) - 5 - Answers 1) denial of responsibility
2) denial of injury (no one was hurt)
, 3) denial of victim (victimless crime)
4) condemnation of the condemners (when the people punishing you are hypocrites)
5) appeal to higher loyalties (social group has more influence than the law)
seductions of crime - Answers people engage in crime because of the excitement involved, and people
can control situations they otherwise couldn't
Katz (1988) - Answers theorist of crime seductions
Social Reaction Theories - Answers theorizes that society creates crime by passing laws; societies define
deviance by declaring certain behaviors to be "bad", and these behaviors vary from time to time and
place to place
Controlology - Answers fundamental idea of the criminal justice system is not to punish or deter
criminals, but to manifest state power; state attempts to maintain its legitimacy by packaging control
efforts so that they appear reasonable, humane, and necessary
policy implications of labeling theory - Answers 1) deinstitutionalization
2) diversion away from the criminal justice system
policy implications of other approaches (controlology) - Answers redistribution of power
consensus of values (conflict criminology) - Answers conflicts in society are handled/regulated by the
government (makes decisions based on majority)
conflict of interest (conflict criminology) - Answers government regulates conflict based on level of
benefit of the arguing party (more economically/politically powerful have an advantage)
Conflict Criminology - Answers the role government plays in creating a criminogenic environment; the
relationship of personal/group power in controlling and shaping the criminal law; the role of bias in the
operations of the criminal justice system; the relationship between a capitalist free-enterprise economy
and crime rates
conduct norms - Answers certain values on things that can be ethically debated (marijuana, abortion)
primary cultural conflicts - Answers two groups with different conduct norms in close proximity to one
another
secondary cultural conflicts - Answers one large culture breaks into subcultures (differentiate conduct
norms)
Vold's Group Conflict Theory (1958) - Answers "criminal behavior is the behavior of minority power
groups"
mala prohibita - Answers less serious offenses
symbolic interactionism - Answers how we interact with others through actions, gestures, symbols, etc.;
concerned with the way that meanings arise in social interaction through communication using language
or symbols
George Herbert Mead (1934) - Answers main theorist of symbolic interactionism
looking glass self - Answers observing your behavior from other people's perspective
labeling theory - Answers people enter into law-violating careers when they are labeled for their acts
and organize their personalities around those labels
Lemert (1951) - Answers main theorist of labeling theory
Two questions with which labeling theory is concerned - Answers (1) How does society label some
people and their behavior as deviant?
(2) What affects do those labels have on the future lives and behaviors of those who have been labeled?
primary deviance - Answers initial act of deviance
secondary deviance - Answers acts that result in getting caught, punished, and labeled by society
status degradation ceremony - Answers when one is publicly declared a criminal
labeling process (8 steps) - Answers 1) primary deviant act
2) social reaction
3) negative label
4) degradation ceremony
5) self-labeling
6) association with a deviant subculture
7) deviance amplification
8) secondary deviance
Sykes and Matza (1957) - Answers theorists of neutralization techniques
Techniques of Neutralization (ways of crime justification) - 5 - Answers 1) denial of responsibility
2) denial of injury (no one was hurt)
, 3) denial of victim (victimless crime)
4) condemnation of the condemners (when the people punishing you are hypocrites)
5) appeal to higher loyalties (social group has more influence than the law)
seductions of crime - Answers people engage in crime because of the excitement involved, and people
can control situations they otherwise couldn't
Katz (1988) - Answers theorist of crime seductions
Social Reaction Theories - Answers theorizes that society creates crime by passing laws; societies define
deviance by declaring certain behaviors to be "bad", and these behaviors vary from time to time and
place to place
Controlology - Answers fundamental idea of the criminal justice system is not to punish or deter
criminals, but to manifest state power; state attempts to maintain its legitimacy by packaging control
efforts so that they appear reasonable, humane, and necessary
policy implications of labeling theory - Answers 1) deinstitutionalization
2) diversion away from the criminal justice system
policy implications of other approaches (controlology) - Answers redistribution of power
consensus of values (conflict criminology) - Answers conflicts in society are handled/regulated by the
government (makes decisions based on majority)
conflict of interest (conflict criminology) - Answers government regulates conflict based on level of
benefit of the arguing party (more economically/politically powerful have an advantage)
Conflict Criminology - Answers the role government plays in creating a criminogenic environment; the
relationship of personal/group power in controlling and shaping the criminal law; the role of bias in the
operations of the criminal justice system; the relationship between a capitalist free-enterprise economy
and crime rates
conduct norms - Answers certain values on things that can be ethically debated (marijuana, abortion)
primary cultural conflicts - Answers two groups with different conduct norms in close proximity to one
another
secondary cultural conflicts - Answers one large culture breaks into subcultures (differentiate conduct
norms)
Vold's Group Conflict Theory (1958) - Answers "criminal behavior is the behavior of minority power
groups"
mala prohibita - Answers less serious offenses
