Criminology A Sociological Understanding 6th Edition Barkan - Test Bank

Chapter 1: An Overview of Crime and Criminology

Multiple Choice

1. ______ is an interdisciplinary science that gathers and analyzes data on crime and criminal behavior.

a. criminology

b. theory

c. sociology

d. law

Ans: a

Learning Objective: 1.1 Be able to describe the difficulties attached to defining crime and the difference between crime and criminality

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What Is Criminology?

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Criminologists use what is known as the ______ to try to answer the questions they ask rather than simply speculate about the questions.

a. scientific procedure

b. scientific method

c. technique of natural science

d. observational analysis

Ans: b

Learning Objective: 1.1 Be able to describe the difficulties attached to defining crime and the difference between crime and criminality

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What Is Criminology?

Difficulty Level: Easy  

3. Universally condemned crimes are known as ______.

a. mala in se

b. mala prohibita 

c. actus reus

d. mens rea

Ans: a

Learning Objective: 1.2 Explain the difference between mala in se and mala prohibita crimes

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Beyond Social Construction: The Stationary Core Crimes

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Crimes that are time and culture bound are described as ______.

a. mala in se

b. mala prohibita

c. actus reus

d. mens rea

Ans: b

Learning Objective: 1.2 Explain the difference between mala in se and mala prohibita crimes | 1.4 Realize how thinking about crime and criminality is time and culture bound

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Beyond Social Construction: The Stationary Core Crimes

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. When criminologists study ______, they study individuals who commit harmful acts, regardless of the legal status of those acts.

a. crime

b. criminology

c. criminality

d. law

Ans: c

Learning Objective: 1.3 Understand the legal process required to “officially” become criminal | 1.4 Realize how thinking about crime and criminality is time and culture bound

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Criminality

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. A(n) ______ is a set of logically interconnected propositions explaining how phenomena are related.

a. theory

b. hypothesis

c. ideology

d. policy

Ans: a

Learning Objective: 1.5 Understand what theory is, how it is formulated, and how theory functions in science

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What Is Criminology?

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. ______ are specific statements about the relationships that we expect to find between and among factors.

a. theories

b. hypotheses

c. educated guesses

d. formulations

Ans: b

Learning Objective: 1.7 Understand the relationship between theory and policy in criminology

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What Is Theory?

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. ______ is a way of looking at the world, a general emotional picture of how things should be.

a. theory

b. ideology

c. vision

d. analysis

Ans: b

Learning Objective: 1.6 Be aware of the role of ideology in criminology

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Ideology in Criminological Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. During the Progressive Era (from about 1890 to 1920), ______ became the primary disciplinary home of criminology.

a. biology

b. psychology

c. sociology

d. theology

Ans: c

Learning Objective: 1.1 Be able to describe the difficulties attached to defining crime and the difference between crime and criminality

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Progressive Era

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Driving 26 miles per hour in an area where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour would best be described as an act

a. mala in se

b. mala prohibita

c. of overcriminalization

d. of felonious proportions

Ans: b

Learning Objective: 1.2 Explain the difference between mala in se and mala prohibita crimes

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Beyond Social Construction: The Stationary Core Crimes

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. Socially harmful acts

a. are deemed to be in need of regulation but not by the criminal law except under exceptional circumstances

b. are socially harmful, but not sufficiently so to require the heavy hand of the criminal law

c. are considered so socially harmful that they come under the purview of the criminal justice system