Criminology Correctly Solved Exam 3 *Q&A* (100% Correct) 2025/2026 |VERIFIED|

Criminology Correctly Solved Exam 3 *Q&A* (100% Correct) 2025/2026 |VERIFIED| Q: What are offenses designed to improve the financial or social position of the criminal? Answer: Instrumental crimes Q: What are offenses committed not for profit or gain but to vent rage, anger, or frustration? Answer: Expressive crimes Q: What term expresses the fact that people commit less crime as they mature? Answer: Aging out Q: What is a chemical substance, such as dopamine, that transmits nerve impulses from one neuron to another? Answer: Neurotransmitter Q: What term refers to the small group of persistent offenders who account for a majority of all criminal offenses? Answer: Chronic offenders Q: What view suggests that repeat offenders begin their criminal careers at a very young age? Answer: Early onset Q: What laws require offenders to serve life in prison after being convicted of a third felony offense? Answer: Three strikes policies Q: What term refers to criminologists who focus on the victims of crime? Answer: Victimologist 1 Q: What psychological reaction occurs in response to a highly stressful event and may include depression, anxiety, flashbacks, and recurring nightmares? Answer: PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Q: What refers to the phenomenon where victims of crime, especially childhood abuse, are more likely to commit crimes themselves? Answer: Cycle of violence Q: What theory suggests that victims may initiate, either actively or passively, the confrontation that leads to their victimization? Answer: Victim precipitation theory Q: What term refers to aggressive or provocative behavior of victims that results in their victimization? Answer: Active precipitation Q: What term refers to personal or social characteristics of victims that make them attractive targets for criminals, and such victims may unknowingly either threaten or encourage their attackers? Answer: Passive precipitation Q: What theories suggest that people become crime victims because their lifestyles increase their exposure to criminal offenders? Answer: Lifestyle theories Q: What theory suggests that victimization is primarily a function of where people live? Answer: Deviant place theory Q: What theory views victimization as resulting from the interaction of three everyday factors: the availability of suitable targets, the absence of capable guardians, and the presence of motivated offenders? Answer: Routine activities theory Q: What term refers to objects of crime that are attractive and readily available? Answer: Suitable targets 2 Q: What term refers to effective deterrents to crime, such as police or watchful neighbors? Answer: Capable guardians Q: What term refers to people willing and able to commit crimes? Answer: Motivated offenders Q: What term refers to victims provoking criminals? Answer: Victim precipitation Q: What term refers to victims putting themselves in danger by engaging in high-risk activities, such as going out late at night, living in a high-crime area, and associating with high-risk peers? Answer: Lifestyle Q: What term refers to the risk of victimization being related to neighborhood crime rates? Answer: Deviant place Q: What term refers to a pool of motivated offenders existing, and these offenders will take advantage of unguarded, suitable targets? Answer: Routine activities Q: What programs help crime victims and witnesses, and may include compensation, court services, and/or crisis intervention? Answer: Victim-witness assistance programs Q: What term refers to financial aid awarded to crime victims to repay them for their loss and injuries, covering medical bills, loss of wages, future earnings, or counseling? Answer: Compensation Q: What term refers to emergency counseling for crime victims? Answer: Crisis intervention 3 Q: What term refers to mediated face-to-face encounters between victims and their attackers, designed to produce restitution agreements and, if possible, reconciliation? Answer: VORPs (Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs) Q: What rights do victims have, such as to be notified of proceedings, to be present at criminal justice proceedings, and to receive restitution from a convicted offender? Answer: Victim's rights Q: What view suggests that an offender reacts selectively to the characteristics of a particular criminal act? Answer: Offense specific crime Q: What view suggests that offenders evaluate their skills, motives, needs, and fears before deciding to commit the criminal act? Answer: Offender specific crime Q: What term refers to the excitement or exhilaration of successfully executing illegal activities in dangerous situations? Answer: Edgework Q: What term refers to the situational inducements or immediate benefits that draw offenders into law violations? Answer: Seductions of crime Q: What method of crime prevention seeks to eliminate or reduce particular crimes in specific settings? Answer: Situational crime prevention Q: What principle suggests that crime can be prevented or displaced by modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity for individuals to commit crime? Answer: Defensible space Q: What term refers to people who serve as guardians of property or people? Answer: Crime discouragers 4 5 Q: What effect occurs when efforts to prevent one crime unintentionally prevent another? Answer: Diffusion Q: What effect occurs when crime control efforts targeting a particular locale help reduce crime in surrounding areas and populations? Answer: Discouragement Q: What effect occurs when crime control efforts simply move, or redirect, offenders to less heavily guarded alternative targets? Answer: Displacement Q: What effect occurs when crime reduction programs produce a short-term positive effect, but benefits dissipate as criminals adjust to new conditions? Answer: Extinction Q: What effect occurs when criminals try new offenses they had previously avoided because situational crime prevention programs neutralized their crime of choice? Answer: Replacement Q: What crime control policy depends on the fear of criminal penalties convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with crime outweigh its benefits? Answer: General deterrence Q: What view suggests that criminal sanctions should be so powerful that offenders will never repeat their criminal acts? Answer: Specific deterrence Q: What term refers to the confinement of a person in jail or prison? Answer: Incarceration Q: What term refers to the repetition of criminal behavior? Answer: Recidivism Q: What is the idea that keeping offenders in confinement will eliminate the risk of their committing further offenses? Answer: Incapacitation effect criminology deviant behavior The scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior. Actions that depart from the social norm. Some are considered criminal, others merely harmless aberrations. criminal justice System made up of the agencies of social control, such as police departments, courts, and correctional institutions that handle criminal offenders. criminological enterprise The various subareas included within the scholarly discipline of criminology, which, taken as a whole, define the field of study. valid measure factual. reliable measure Measure that actually measures what it purports to measure, measure that is A measure that produces consistent results from one measurement to another. victim precipitated homicide precipitator of the incident. white collar crime Refers to those killings in which the victim is a direct, positive Illegal acts that capitalize on a person's status in the marketplace. May include theft, embezzlement, etc. penology offenders. rehabilitation behavior. Subarea of the criminology that focuses on the correction and control of criminal Treatment of criminal offenders that is aimed at preventing future criminal 6 mandatory sentences A statutory requirement that a certain penalty shall be carried out in all cases of conviction for a specified offense or series of offenses. victimology precipitation victimization. Study of the victim's role in criminal events. The thought pattern of the victim about what they did to contribute to their own classical criminology Theoretical perspective suggesting that people choose to commit crime and that crime can be controlled if potential criminals fear punishment. positivism Branch of social science that uses the scientific method of the natural sciences and suggests that human behavior is a product of social, biological, psychological, or economic forces that can be empirically measured. sociological criminology Based on the work of Emile Durkheim that focuses on the relationship between social factors and crime. anomie Lack of norms or clear social standards. Because of rapidly shifting moral values, the individual has few guides to what is socially acceptable. socialization Process of human development and enculturation. Socialization is influenced by key social processes and institutions. conflict theory The view that human behavior is shaped by interpersonal conflict and that those who maintain social power will use it to further their own ends. critical criminology rational choice theory Crime is a product of the capitalist system. The view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the would-be offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act. 7 trait theory The view that criminality is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits. social structure theory Criminality is a function of people's interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society. critical criminologists Examine how those who hold political and economic power shape the law to uphold their self-interests. crime An act, deemed socially harmful or dangerous, that is specifically defined, prohibited, and punished under the criminal law. decriminalized consensus view Having criminal penalties reduced rather than eliminated. The majority of citizens in a society share common values and agree on what behaviors should be criminal. criminal law Belief that criminal behavior is defined by those in power in a way as to protect and advance their own self-interest. interactionist view Those with social power are able to impose their values on society as a whole, and these values then define criminal behavior. precedent common law. common law A rule derived from previous judicial decisions and applied to future cases; the basis of Early English law, developed by judges, which became the standardized law of the land in England and eventually formed the basis of the criminal law of the US. statutory crimes Crimes defined by legislative bodies in response to changing social conditions, public opinion, and custom. 8 felony Serious offense that carries a penalty of imprisonment, usually for one year or more, and may entail loss of political rights. misdemeanor process of justice 2. Investigation 3. Arrest 4. Custody Minor crime usually punished by short jail term or fine. 1. Initial Contact 5. Complaint/Charging 6. Preliminary Hearing/Grand Jury 7. Arraignment 8. Bail 9. Plea Bargain 10. Adjudication/Trail Process 11. Disposition 12. Appeal arrest Taking into police custody of an individual suspected of a crime. probably cause Set of facts, info, circumstances, or conditions that would lead a reasonable person to believe that an offense was committed and that the accused committed the offense. booking interrogation The finger printing, photography, and recording personal info of a suspect in custody. The questioning of a suspect. 9 nolle prosequi Component of complaint that expresses the prosecutor's decision to drop a case from further prosecution. indictment A written accusation returned by a jury charging a person with a crime, based on the prosecutor's demonstration of probably cause. grand jury accusations. information A group of citizens are chosen to hear testimony in secret and to issue formal criminal Component of a preliminary hearing that is a filing before an impartial lower-court judge who decides whether the case should go forward. preliminary hearing An alternative to a grand jury, in which an impartial lower-court judge decides whether there is probably cause sufficient for a trial. arraignment the accused is brought before the trail judge, formal charges are read, defendants are informed of their rights, a plea is entered, bail is set or considered, and a trial date is set. bail Money bond intended to ensure that the accused will return for trial. recognizance plea bargain Pledge by the accused to return for trial, which may be accepted in lieu of bail. Agreement between the prosecution and the defense in which the accused pleads guilty in return for a reduction of charges, a more lenient sentence, or other considerations. hung jury appeal Jury that is unable to agree on a decision leaving the case unresolved. Taking a criminal case to a higher court on the grounds that the defendant was found guilty because of legal error or violation of his or her constitutional rights. 10 UCR (Uniform Crime Report) Large database, compiled by the FBI, of crimes reported and arrests made each year throughout the US. Part 1 Crimes 8 most serious offenses included in the UCR: murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, arson, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Part 2 Crimes All other crimes besides Part 1 crimes included in the UCR arrests data. Include drug offenses, sex crimes, and vandalism, among others. NIBRS (National Incident Based Reporting System) Requires local police agencies to provide a brief account of each incident and arrest within 22 crime patterns including incident, victim, and offender information. sampling population Selecting a limited number of people for study as a representative of a larger group. All people who share a particular characteristic. NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey) The ongoing victimization study conducted jointly by the Justice Department and the US Census Bureau that surveys victims about their experiences with law violation. self report survey A research approach that requires subjects to reveal their own participation in delinquent or criminal acts. masculinity hypothesis traits similar to those of men. liberal feminist theory View that women who commit crimes have biological and psychological View of crime that suggests that the social and economic role of women in society controls their crime rates. racial threat theory As the size of the black population increase, the perceived threat to the white population increase, resulting in a greater amount of social control imposed on blacks. 11 racial profiling race. Police-initiated action directed at a suspect or group of suspects based solely on 12