Exam 7: Sociological Mainstream Theories

Maliciousness is expressed in a general disdain for middle-class values or objects and a negative reaction to such values.

The study of the interrelationship between human organisms and the physical environment is known as human ecology.

Urban ecology views the city as a growing organism.

What does lower-class reaction theory, created by Albert Cohen, postulate?

According to the routine activities theory, working-class juveniles will choose one or another type of subcultural (gang) adjustment to their anomic situation depending on the availability of illegitimate opportunity structures in their neighborhood.

Which of the following delinquent subcultures occurs in stable neighborhoods in which a hierarchy of available criminal opportunities exists?

An individual commits a crime because he has "nothing better to do with his time." Which of the following social bonds does this indicate a lack of?

According to containment theory, which of the following would the internalization of conventional behavior constitute?

General Strain Theory views strain as a more general phenomenon than the discrepancy between aspirations and expectations.

The "institutional anomie theory" attributes crime to the ______.

Cohen viewed lower-class delinquency as nonutilitarian, malicious, and negativistic.

List one reason that individuals would engage in crime according to general strain theory.

An individual commits a crime because he has "nothing to lose." Which of the following social bonds does this indicate a lack of?

One weakness of Edwin Sutherland's differential association theory is that he failed to account for the fact that not all associations are equal in intensity, frequency, duration, and priority.

Identify the five aspects of high-deviance areas proposed by Stark (1987).

Merton's adaptation of anomie became known as ______.

The idea that delinquents exist "in a limbo between convention and crime" is consistent with which of the following theories?

Compare and contrast Merton's theory of anomie/strain to Agnew's general strain theory. How are the two alike? How are they different?

General theory of crime, developed by Gottfredson and Hirschi, commits a global fallacy in its efforts to explain crime as "low self-control" in pursuit of "self-interest."

Strain may prevent one from achieving positively valued goals.