Lesson 4.3.1.1

4.3.1.1 Crime, deviance, social order and social control Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 3

20 questions

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Lesson 4.3.1.1, Crime, deviance, social order and social control: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Sociology (7192), Unit 3: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is the basic difference between crime and deviance?

    • Crime is measured only through police statistics, whereas deviance is measured only through victimisation surveys of households
    • Crime is committed only by adults, whereas deviance is committed only by children and young people under the age of eighteen
    • Crime breaks formally written criminal law, whereas deviance breaks informal social norms that may not be illegal
    • Crime is always committed by individuals alone, whereas deviance is always committed by groups acting together in public

  2. According to Durkheim, why is crime 'normal' in every society?

    • Crime is normal because individuals are naturally selfish, so offending is always an expression of innate human desires
    • Crime is found in all societies and helps to clarify and reinforce shared moral boundaries and the collective conscience
    • Crime is normal because it is caused only by poverty, which exists in every society and cannot be eliminated by policy
    • Crime is normal because every society has exactly the same rates of offending, which are fixed by biology and do not change

  3. In Merton's strain theory, what does the 'innovation' response involve?

    • Accepting the culturally valued goal of success, such as wealth, but using illegitimate means because legitimate routes are blocked
    • Rejecting both the cultural goals and the legitimate means, and withdrawing from mainstream society into a separate lifestyle
    • Accepting both the cultural goals and the legitimate means, and continuing to pursue success in conventional ways over time
    • Rejecting the cultural goals of success while continuing to follow the legitimate means laid down by the rules of society

  4. Which concept, associated with Howard Becker, describes deviance as the result of other people's responses to behaviour?

    • Control theory: deviance is less likely when people have strong bonds to conventional society, such as family and school
    • Labelling theory: deviance is created when rules are applied to people, who are then labelled as deviant by others
    • Strain theory: deviance results from the gap between cultural goals and the legitimate means available to achieve them
    • Subcultural theory: deviance is learned through membership of groups whose values differ from those of mainstream society

  5. Which is the best example of informal social control?

    • Friends and family disapproving of a person's behaviour and pressuring them to change, without any legal sanction
    • A police officer issuing a fixed penalty notice to a driver who has exceeded the posted speed limit on a motorway
    • A prison governor applying rules about visits and privileges to prisoners who have broken institutional regulations
    • A court sentencing an offender to a community order after a conviction for a minor assault in a local magistrates court

  6. Which theory explains conformity in terms of the strength of a person's bonds to family, school and community?

    • Conflict theory (Marx), which argues that laws reflect the interests of the powerful and criminalise the behaviour of the poor
    • Control theory (Hirschi), which argues that strong social bonds reduce the likelihood of deviant or criminal behaviour
    • Labelling theory (Becker), which argues that deviance is created by social reactions to behaviour and the labels applied
    • Interactionist theory (Mead), which argues that the self develops through social interaction and the taking of others' roles

  7. Which of these best describes social order in sociological terms?

    • Patterns of behaviour that are completely fixed, with no change or variation between individuals in any social group
    • Patterns of behaviour that are determined only by the weather and the seasons, which govern when people work and rest
    • Patterns of behaviour that are regular and predictable, supported by shared norms and institutions that maintain stability
    • Patterns of behaviour that depend entirely on physical force, since no shared norms or values exist in any society

  8. What is meant by 'formal social control'?

    • Control exercised through religious rituals in which individuals confess their sins and receive forgiveness from a priest
    • Control exercised through official institutions such as the police, courts and prisons, using laws and written rules
    • Control exercised through the everyday actions of neighbours, friends and family members who express approval or disapproval
    • Control exercised through advertising campaigns that encourage people to buy goods associated with social approval

  9. Which theory explains that crime is more likely when people experience a gap between culturally approved goals and the means to achieve them?

    • Strain theory (Merton), which argues that structural pressures and blocked opportunities encourage deviant responses
    • Labelling theory (Becker), which argues that crime arises from the official labels applied to people by agencies of control
    • Control theory (Hirschi), which argues that crime occurs when people have weak bonds to family, school and conventional society
    • Differential association theory (Sutherland), which argues that criminal behaviour is learned through close personal groups

  10. A society responds to a campaign of public protest by changing its laws so that a previously lawful activity becomes a crime. What does this illustrate?

    • The biological basis of crime, since the new law reflects a genetic change in the behaviour of the population over time
    • The fixed and unchanging nature of crime, which remains identical in every society and throughout all historical periods
    • The dynamic and relative nature of crime, since the content of criminal law changes as society and its power relations change
    • The irrelevance of law to social order, since people ignore laws that are changed and continue their previous behaviour

  11. Which function did Durkheim attribute to punishment in relation to social order?

    • Punishment reflects the biological inheritance of criminal tendencies, which can only be controlled through physical restraint
    • Punishment publicly reaffirms shared moral values and reinforces the boundaries of acceptable behaviour in society
    • Punishment is a purely economic transaction, in which offenders pay a fixed sum to compensate for the costs of their crimes
    • Punishment removes the need for all other forms of social control, since offenders are deterred from ever offending again

  12. Which concept refers to a situation in which norms have weakened and people lack clear guidance about acceptable behaviour?

    • Ethnocentrism, a state in which a society judges other cultures only by the standards of its own traditions and beliefs
    • Anomie, a state of normlessness that can arise during rapid social change or when norms conflict or break down
    • Hegemony, a state in which the ruling class leads through consent, so that subordinate groups accept their own position
    • Anomie, a state of total agreement about norms, in which every member of society shares an identical set of values

  13. A researcher argues that a young person's offending is due to frequent contact with a delinquent peer group. Which theory does this most directly reflect?

    • Biological positivism (Lombroso), which argues that criminals are born with physical features that mark them out as offenders
    • Differential association theory (Sutherland), which argues that criminal behaviour is learned through interaction with others
    • Rational choice theory (Clarke), which argues that offenders weigh costs and benefits before committing a particular crime
    • Functionalist theory (Durkheim), which argues that crime is normal and helps to maintain collective moral boundaries in society

  14. Why do sociologists study deviance in relation to power?

    • Because those with power often define which behaviours are deviant, so the label may reflect their interests more than harm
    • Because power is always used to prevent deviance, so the powerful never commit or are labelled as deviant in any society
    • Because deviance and power are identical concepts, so studying either one means studying the other without any difference
    • Because power has no connection to deviance, since criminal behaviour is random and occurs equally across all social groups

  15. Which of these is an example of a norm rather than a law?

    • Expectations that people queue politely, or that they wear suitable clothes at a funeral, without any legal sanction for breaking them
    • Rules against driving under the influence of alcohol, which are enforced by the police through fines and driving bans
    • Requirements to pay tax on income, which are enforced by the revenue authorities through fines and legal prosecution in court
    • Prohibitions on theft, which are set out in criminal codes and punished through the courts and prison system in every country

  16. Which statement best reflects Durkheim's view of deviance in modern societies?

    • Deviance has no social significance, because it is random and unrelated to the values and structures of the society in which it occurs
    • Deviance is always harmful, and every society should aim to eliminate it completely because it weakens social stability
    • Deviance is a sign of individual weakness, which social institutions can remove through moral education and religious teaching
    • Deviance can signal changing values and encourage social change, because it challenges existing norms and boundaries

  17. What does a control theory explanation predict about young people who have strong attachments to school and family?

    • They are equally likely to offend as anyone else, because attachments to family and school have no influence on behaviour
    • They are more likely to offend, because strong family ties encourage young people to challenge the rules of their school
    • They are less likely to offend, because their bonds give them a stake in conformity
    • They are more likely to be labelled deviant, because the people who care for them are most likely to report their behaviour

  18. Which concept describes behaviour that is socially disapproved of but not illegal, such as rudeness in a queue?

    • Deviance, understood as a departure from social norms that is not necessarily a breach of criminal law
    • Stratification, understood as the ranking of groups in a hierarchy according to their wealth, power and social prestige
    • Socialisation, understood as the process by which individuals learn the norms and values of their society over time
    • Crime, understood as a breach of formal criminal law, which is always punished by the courts in every legal system

  19. A researcher argues that the 'dark figure of crime' makes official statistics incomplete. What does this term refer to?

    • Crimes committed by foreign nationals, which are excluded from official statistics because they are recorded under immigration law
    • Crimes committed at night in poorly lit areas, which are more difficult for police officers to observe and record accurately
    • Crimes committed by offenders who are never arrested, because they live in remote areas with no police presence at all
    • Crimes that are committed but not reported to or recorded by the police, and so do not appear in official statistics

  20. How does socialisation contribute to social order?

    • Individuals are kept in line only by physical force, since socialisation has no lasting effect on how people behave as adults
    • Individuals learn only the laws of the state, so socialisation consists entirely of memorising legal codes and court procedures
    • Individuals are sorted into fixed castes at birth, which removes any need for norms, values or any learned behaviour at all
    • Individuals internalise shared norms and values during childhood and later life, so they tend to conform without constant coercion

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