Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Test Bank
CHAPTER 13: DEVELOPMENTAL/LIFE-COURSE PERSPECTIVES ON
CRIMINALITY
Multiple Choice
1. Sampson and Laub’s developmental model is considered a more specified
form of ______.
a. social learning theory
b. Moffitt’s taxonomy
c. theory of drift
d. social control theory
2. ______ refers to how often the individual offends at certain times.
a. Onset
b. Duration
c. Intensity
d. Frequency
3. The ______ of offending refers to when the offender first begins offending, and
desistence refers to when an individual stops committing crime.
a. onset
b. duration
c. intensity
d. frequency
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
4. ______ refers to when the criminal career of an individual ends and he or she
opts out of offending (or at least doesn’t get caught again).
a. Onset
b. Desistance
c. Intensity
d. Frequency
5. Chronic offending often starts with ______ offenses, such as truancy,
smoking, and underage drinking, but then escalates to more serious offenses,
such as burglary, robbery, and assault.
a. major
b. minor
c. violent
d. felony
6. The general theory of crime, proposed by Gottfredson and Hirschi, assumes
that self-control must be established by age ______.
a. 18
b. 10
c. 15
d. 5
7. Thornberry combined ______ and ______ models when developing
interactional model.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
a. social control; social learning
b. routine activities; social learning
c. social control; rational choice
d. routine activities; social control
8. Commitment to school and attachments to ______ are some of the most
essential predictors of delinquency, according to Thornberry’s interactional
model.
a. siblings
b. teachers
c. friends
d. parents
9. The most significant and effective interventions can occur during what stages
of life?
a. prenatal and adolescence
b. prenatal and perinatal
c. perinatal and nanogenarian
d. adolescence and nanogenarian
10. Assigning special caseworkers for high-risk pregnancies, such as those
involving ______, is another possible policy implication related to developmental
theories.
a. low birth weight
b. C-section births
c. fibromyalgia
d. breech births
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
11. Sampson and Laub strongly emphasize the importance of ______, or specific
events, that are important in altering long-term trends in behavior.
a. alterations
b. transitions
c. reparations
d. interventions
12. Compared to transitions, ______ are more nonspecific, longitudinal patterns
of behavior either toward or away from committing crime and are typically the
cumulative result of many transitions.
a. interventions
b. stages
c. trajectories
d. anomalies
13. Developmental theories tend to look at the ______ as the unit of analysis.
a. family
b. nation
c. individual
d. peer group
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
14. The length of an individual’s criminal career ______.
a. onset
b. frequency
c. intensity
d. persistence/duration
15. All of the following committed at an early age can be considered fired flags”
for determining the likelihood of an individual becoming a chronic offender
EXCEPT ______.
a. loitering
b. fire-setting
c. cruelty to animals
d. history of bed wetting
16. According to the general theory of crime, once low self-control is set at an
early age, there is no way to develop it afterward. Developmental theory believes
that ______.
a. people can change over time
b. people cannot change over time
c. people will always remain the same in their beliefs
d. actions may change, but beliefs do not
17. ______ was not seriously considered an Index crime until around 1978 by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
a. Aggravated assault
b. Rape
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
c. Burglary
d. Arson
18. ______ developmental theory or taxonomy distinguishes two types of
offenders: life-course persistent and adolescence-limited offenders.
a. Sampson and Laub’s
b. Thornberry’s
c. Moffitt’s
d. Gottfredson and Hirschi’s
19. Before 1970, criminological theories did not attempt to explain the ______ of
individual criminal careers.
a. factors
b. variables
c. stages
d. development
20. Gottfredson and Hirschi believe that socialization controls are established
______.
a. in the first years of life
b. during adolescence
c. around puberty
d. at the age 18
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
21. Virtually all studies on the life-course/developmental perspective show that
most individuals who get arrested ______.
a. continue committing minor-status offenses
b. graduate to higher level petty crimes
c. subsequently commit serious criminal acts
d. are never arrested again
22. Thornberry places the level of attachment and commitment to conventional
society ahead of the degree of ______ that an individual holds regarding criminal
offending.
a. pressures
b. associations
c. moral beliefs
d. corrupt values
23. Self-selection refers to ______.
a. selecting where an individual will live
b. picking friends based on their previous delinquent behavior
c. learning criminality from delinquent associations
d. selecting who the individual will marry
24. Lambda is another word for offender ______.
a. frequency
b. onsent
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
c. persistence/duration
d. intensity
25. Which theory assumes that individuals are born predisposed toward selfish,
self-centered activities and that only effective child rearing and socialization can
create self-control?
a. life-course
b. trait
c. low self-control
d. feminist
26. According to Moffitt, adolescent-limited offenders ______.
a. make up a very small percentage of the population
b. usually grow up to be career criminals
c. make up most of the general public
d. are almost always male
27. According to Moffitt, life course persistent offenders usually suffer from
______.
a. neurological problems
b. a disadvantaged background
c. a and b
d. neither a or b
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
28. Thornberry’s interactional model was the first major perspective to emphasize
______.
a. reciprocal effects in the causal modeling of the theoretical framework
b. gender as a predictive factor of future criminality
c. race as an element of data to be analyzed in causal modeling
d. that geographic elements should be analyzed in causal modeling
29. What is not one of Thornberry’s five primary theoretical constructs that are
synthesized in a comprehensive framework to explain criminal behavior?
a. commitment to school
b. rejection of a delinquent peer group
c. attachment to parents
d. belief in conventional values
30. Many criminologists contend that policymakers should ______ pregnant
women, as well as their newborn infants, through the first few years of life in
order to reduce early risk factors for criminality.
a. provide universal healthcare for
b. initiate investigations on
c. conduct mandatory genetic testing on
d. distribute nutritional information to
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
31. What do most experts agree we need to do for pregnant women who are
addicted to drugs and/or alcohol?
a. mandate that custody of their children be turned over to the state
b. require interventions, such as mandatory rehabilitation/supervision
c. incarcerate them for the duration of their pregnancy
d. conduct genetic testing for predisposition to addiction
32. What is the prominent toxin mentioned in the text that has a causal
connection to persistent criminality?
a. fluoride
b. parabens
c. phthalates
d. lead
33. Although a variety of policy implications can be derived by life-course and
developmental perspectives, most focus on a specific stage of life, which is
______.
a. the teenage years
b. early adulthood
c. infancy and toddlerhood
d. middle age
34. Which theorist is associated with the low self-control theory?
a. Hirschi
b. Thornberry
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
c. Moffitt
d. Laub
35. Which theorist would be most likely to contend that an individual can change
and stop offending, especially when positive transitions occur?
a. Hirschi
b. Thornberry
c. Moffitt
d. Laub
36. Thornberry was the first theorist who pointed out ______.
a. key factors tend to influence or interact with each other and cause fifeedback
loops” or reciprocal effects
b. parental neglect can cause trauma, which can later lead to criminal behavior
c. certain toxins can cause criminal behavior, especially lead and certain
pesticides
d. there are numerous trajectories or pathways that can lead to a life of crime
37. Moffitt proposed that ______ offenders were more chronic offenders who
start early and continue throughout life, and that ______ offended only during
teenage years to early 20s and then grew out of it.
a. adolescent-limited; life-course
b. life-course; adolescent-limited
c. propensity; intermediate
d. intermediate; propensity
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
38. What percentage of the population never offends at all during the adolescent
years?
a. 1% to 3%
b. 5% to 10%
c. 20% to 30%
d. 40% to 50%
39. What percentage of all offenders are life-course persistent offenders?
a. 2% to 4%
b. 4% to 8%
c. 8% to 12%
d. 12% to 16%
40. Thornberry’s theoretical model is based on reciprocal effects, meaning that
what is an outcome variable can also become a ______ variable.
a. prospective
b. conventional
c. predictive
d. converse