Eitzen, In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, 14th Edition, Test Bank
Chapter Six: Deviance
Multiple Choice Questions
TB_Q6.1.1
The term “deviance” refers to
a. behavior that does not conform to social expectations.
b. biologically created reality.
c. behavior that is inherently wrong.
d. behavior consistently condemned from society to society.
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.1.2
Deviance is _____, meaning that social organizations create definitions of right and wrong by originating norms, the
infraction of which constitutes deviance.
a. individually based
b. socially constructed
c. a source of societal unrest
d. relative, not absolute
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.1.3
Evidence that deviance is a(n) _____ is found in the fact that societies differ on what is considered deviance.
a. integral part of developing societies but not developed ones
b. absolute, not a relative, notion
c. relative, not an absolute, notion
d. integral part of some but not all societies
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.1.4
Chapter Six: Deviance
Until the Supreme Court decision of June, 2015, Chris could marry Robin in some but not all states only if one
of them was male and the other female. This is an example of the chapter’s assertion that _____ shows that
deviance is relative.
a. deviant people adopting societal norms
b. deviant behavior among consenting adults
c. deviant behavior results in similar behavior by different categories of people within a single society
d. differential treatment of similar behavior by different categories of people within a single society
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q6.1.5
Who decides that certain behavior is or is not deviant in a society?
a. The majority
b. The government
c. Religious leaders
d. The voters
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: East
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.1.6
Within a society, certain groups have more _____ than others, so they have more success in getting their definitions of
deviance to prevail.
a. moral authority
b. power
c. logical reasons
d. differences of opinion
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.1.7
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
According to _____, deviance gives the nondeviants a sense of solidarity by reasserting the importance of the rule
being violated.
a. Daniel Solove
b. Daniel Gross
c. Emile Durkheim
d. Cornel West
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.1.8
By punishing deviants, the group expresses collective indignation and reaffirms its commitments to the rules.
This illustrates which of the five important principles of deviance described in the chapter?
a. Deviance is socially constructed.
b. Deviance is relative, not absolute.
c. The majority determines who and what is deviant.
d. Deviance is an integral part of all societies.
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.1.9
Who wrote a book about how the Internet has upped the ante regarding deviance and public shame?
a. Daniel Solove
b. Daniel Gross
c. Emile Durkheim
d. Cornel West
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.1.10
Violators of important social norms are often _____; that is, they are set apart by being socially disgraced.
a. deviated
b. stigmatized
c. segregated
d. banished
Chapter Six: Deviance
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.1.11
In a heterogeneous society, what constitutes deviance
a. is almost unanimously agreed upon.
b. results in severely punitive response.
c. is the source of widespread disagreement.
d. is determined by law.
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.1.12
Crime, according to Durkheim’s point of view, is a _____ function for society, because it serves to reaffirm the
legitimacy of the society and creates the boundaries for what is acceptable behavior.
a. destabilizing
b. positive
c. validating
d. detrimental
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.1.13
Which of the following scenarios from the chapter illustrates the point that violators of important social norms
are often stigmatized?
a. The major religious bodies in the United States have taken a strong position against homosexuality and
their opposition has influenced the laws and community norms.
b. If most people believe that Iraqis are the enemy, then bombing their villages is appropriate and refusing to
do so is deviant.
c. Murder is a deviant act, but the killing of an enemy during wartime is rewarded with praise and medals.
d. Because states make sex offender registries public, anyone can look online and find names, addresses, and
pictures of the sex offenders in his or her state or neighborhood.
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analyze It
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
TB_Q6.1.14
The chapter notes that “Web sites are increasingly naming names, or at least posting descriptions, pictures, and license
plate numbers, of people supposedly caught in the act of violating social norms.” These types of Web sites are also
known as
a. shame sites.
b. Internet norms.
c. deviance sites.
d. the public temper.
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.1.15
According to Durkheim, the true function of punishment is to
a. prevent future crimes.
b. reassert the importance of the rule being violated.
c. satisfy the need for revenge.
d. make an example of the criminal.
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.1.16
According to a 2010 taxpayer attitude survey, _____ of people believe that it is acceptable to cheat on income
taxes.
a. 72%
b. 37%
c. 12%
d. 1%
Learning Objective: LO 6.1: Know the five principles that help us understand the concept of deviance.
Topic/Concept: The Characteristics of Deviance
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.17
Chapter Six: Deviance
One classical biological explanation of deviance called _____ focused on the determination of character by
facial features.
a. physiognomy
b. phrenology
c. somatolog
d. sociology
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.18
Caesare Lombroso’s biological theory that criminals _____ has been substantially discredited.
a. can be identified by distinctive bumps on their skulls
b. represent a throwback to an earlier stage of human development
c. have larger brains and therefore larger skills
d. are generally males with XYY syndrome
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.19
_____ theories consider the source of deviance to be conditions of the individual’s mind or personality.
a. Sociological
b. Psychological
c. Biological
d. Physiological
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.20
One psychological theory is that deviants tend to be _____, who are asocial, aggressive, and impulsive.
a. depressives
b. chromosomally abnormal
c. psychopaths
d. traumatized
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.21
In Freudian theory, the deviant is a person who has not developed an adequate ______ to control the _______ .
a. superego; ego
b. ego; id
c. ego; superego
d. libido; ego
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.22
Edwin Sutherland’s theory of _____ proposes that procriminal sentiments are acquired by association with other
individuals in a process of social interaction.
a. the culture of poverty
b. differential opportunities
c. differential association
d. inadequate socialization
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.23
_____ proposed that people turn to deviance because they are denied access to legitimate means of achieving the
goals of society.
a. Sigmund Freud
b. Edwin Sutherland
c. Robert Merton
d. William Ryan
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.24
Chapter Six: Deviance
The concept of _____ is the view that the poor are qualitatively different in values and lifestyles from the rest of
society, and that these cultural differences explain continued poverty and deviance.
a. cultural transmission
b. stigmatization
c. the culture of poverty
d. cultural deprivation
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.2.25
According to _____, a person in the lower class does not have a strong sense of morality and thus is not
constrained by legal rules.
a. Edwin Sutherland
b. Robert Merton
c. William Ryan
d. Edward Banfield
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q6.2.26
Gilberto’s teacher says he will never do well in school and will probably become a criminal because he is not
trying hard enough to learn English. The teacher’s attitude is known as
a. predicting the future.
b. blaming the victim.
c. racial profiling.
d. blaming society.
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q6.2.27
One danger of the system-blame orientation is that it
a. gives too much credibility to the idea that some individuals are malicious for psychological reasons.
b. blames the victim.
c. can present people as robots controlled totally by their social environment.
d. has no explanation for social problems like poverty or recidivism.
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q6.2.28
The sociological theories that focus on _____ are based on the empirical observations that crime and mental illness
rates vary by social location; that is, by social class, ethnicity, race, place of residence, and sex.
a. the culture of poverty
b. kinds of people
c. psychological problems
d. societal norms
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q6.2.29
The person-blame approach results in the advantaged segments of society
a. retaining their advantages.
b. losing their advantages.
c. blaming others for their problems.
d. blaming the poor for higher taxes.
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts.
TB_Q6.2.30
Victim blamers contend that African Americans are more likely than Whites to be incarcerated because they have
high rates of illegitimacy, a high proportion of transient males, and their families have matriarchal structures.
What does this approach ignore?
a. That Whites are more likely to be incarcerated than African Americans
b. The pervasive effects of racism in the United States
c. That this is actually a system-blaming approach
d. The victim blamers are psychologically deprived
Learning Objective: LO 6.2: Critique the theories that point to the individual as the source of deviance.
Topic/Concept: Traditional Theories for the Causes of Deviance: The Individual
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts.
TB_Q6.2.31