Criminology Basics
This field explores the study of crime and punishment.
What is Criminology?
Beccaria’s critique in On Crime and Punishment primarily targeted:
• A. Celerity and Certainty
• B. Power and discretion
• C. Law and order
• D. King and Queen
Answer: B. What is "Power and discretion"?
What is the “dark figure of crime”?
Answer: What is crime unknown to the police?
True or False: The majority of crimes committed in the United States are "index offenses."
Answer: What is False?
Which organization compiles the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)?
Answer: What is the Federal Bureau of Investigations?
This term describes behavior that falls outside the norms of society but isn’t necessarily criminal.
What is Deviance?
Beccaria argued that punishments should be just severe enough to deter the crime, but no more severe than necessary. He believed that punishment should be aligned with the severity of the crime and thus:________.
What is Proportional?
The _______ indicates that a significant proportion of crimes are not reported to the police.
Answer: What is the NCVS/victim surveys?
The gap between male and female crime rates is _______ in modernized societies.
Answer: What is the Narrowing?
The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) addresses the issue of the _____ rule used in UCR which allows only the most serious offense to be documented.
Answer: What is the hierarchy rule?
Which perspective views laws as tools to control and manage certain groups in society?
What is the Conflict View of Crime?
According to Beccaria, the amount of punishment necessary should be:
What is the "bare minimum possible"?
Which term refers to the consistency and stability of measurement in research?
Answer: What is reliability?
This demographic factor is the most consistent predictor of criminal behavior across various studies.
What is Gender?
Which source of data provides detailed information on criminal incidents, including location and presence of a weapon?
Answer: What is NIBRS?
Laws against acts that are considered crimes because they are prohibited by law, not because they are inherently evil or immoral.
What is Mala Prohibita?
According to Beccaria, punishment should be ______ in order to effectively deter crime and maintain a strong connection to the act.
Answer: What is swift?
The use of pretests and posttests is associated with which research methodology?
Answer: What is experimentation?
This factor is commonly linked to an increase in crime rates and includes economic hardships.
What is Unemployment?
The NCVS indicates that only ____ of crimes are reported to the police.
Answer: What is 1/3?
These are the four essential characteristics of law.
What are: Assumed by political authority, must be specific, uniformly applied, and contains penal sanctions?
According to Beccaria, punishment is necessary to____?
What is: prevent people from acting on their own self interest?; Serve as a political obstacle.
What is the most important "social institution" in regard to socializing children?
Answer: What is Family?
Compared to other westernized countries, the United States has a strikingly high rate of which types of crimes?
Answer: What are violent crimes?
If participants in an experiment have an equal probability of being assigned to the experimental group or the control group, this is accomplished through:
Answer: What is Randomization?