Week 6 Quiz

During a wedding ceremony, a guest takes a loud phone call in the front row. No law forbids it. How is the act best classified?

Select one.

• Deviant but not a crime, since it breaks a norm and no law
• A crime, because any act that breaks a group's norm breaks the law
• Both deviant and a crime, because the guests react strongly to it
• Neither deviant nor a crime, because only illegal acts count as deviant ones here

Loud cheering is expected in a stadium during a playoff game, yet the same cheering in a hospital waiting room draws glares and a warning. Which idea does this contrast show?

Select one.

• Secondary deviance, because the cheering fan begins to accept a label as a rule-breaker
• Strain theory, because the fan's goals outrun the approved means
• The relativity of deviance, since the verdict depends on the setting
• Differential association, because the fan learned to cheer from friends

In a hobby group chat, a member posts the same ad five times. Other members reply with eye-roll emoji, and then the chat's moderator removes the posts under the group's posted rules. Which kind of social control is the moderator's response?

Select one.

• Informal social control, because it happens inside a casual chat
• Formal social control, since an official role acts under written rules
• The criminal-justice system, because a written rule was enforced against the member
• A positive sanction, because the moderator rewards the other members

Which statement best represents Durkheim's account of deviance, from The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) and The Division of Labor in Society (1893)?

Select one.

• Crime is a good thing, and societies should encourage more of it
• Crime appears only in societies that are breaking down and losing their shared norms
• Deviance is learned from the close personal groups a person spends time with
• Crime is normal, and punishing it reaffirms shared norms

In a sales office, every employee is told to hit a monthly target. One employee enters fake orders that will be canceled later, so the numbers look good now. Which of Merton's responses is this?

Select one.

• Ritualism, because the employee still fills in the order forms
• Innovation, since the employee keeps the goal but uses disapproved means
• Rebellion, because the employee is challenging the office's target and its whole system of rules
• Retreatism, because the employee has given up on honest selling

In the same sales office, another employee logs every call on time and fills in every form, but no longer expects to hit the target or cares about the bonus. Which of Merton's responses is this?

Select one.

• Ritualism, because the employee keeps the approved means after giving up the goal
• Retreatism, because the employee has given up on the goal
• Innovation, because the employee found a new way to get through the day
• Conformity, because the employee follows every rule

A ninth grader talks back to a teacher once, then is called "the troublemaker" by teachers and classmates, and months later says, "That's who I am now." Which statement applies labeling theory and Lemert's terms accurately?

Select one.

• The label caused the first act of talking back, so labeling explains all of the student's deviance
• The first act was secondary deviance, because the teacher reacted to it
• The first act was primary deviance; the later self-concept is secondary deviance
• The student shows strain, because the goal of good grades outran the approved means

A homeowners' board bans parking work trucks overnight, and the rule falls on residents who drive trucks for a living. Which question does the conflict account ask first about this rule?

Select one.

• What function does the rule serve in keeping the whole neighborhood stable and orderly over time?
• How did the truck owners learn to park there from their neighbors?
• Which of Merton's five responses do the truck owners show?
• Who had the power to define this behavior as deviant, and who is defined by it?

In an illustrative example, Town A records 12 crimes among 40,000 residents in one year, and Town B records 15 crimes among 30,000 residents. Which statement compares the towns correctly?

Select one.

• Town A has the higher rate, because it has more residents
• Town B's rate is 50 per 100,000, about 1.7 times Town A's 30 per 100,000
• The towns have about the same rate, because the counts differ by only 3
• Town B's rate is 15 per 100,000, the same as its count

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey reported 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2024, of which 11.2 per 1,000 were reported to police. Select every statement that reads these figures accurately.

Select every option that applies.

• About 48% of the violent victimizations the survey counted reached police, since 11.2 ÷ 23.3 × 100 ≈ 48
• 23.3% of people age 12 or older were victims of violent crime in 2024
• Police-reported data and the survey measure different things, and neither is the true number
• The figures show that violent crime rose in 2024
• The 11.2 per 1,000 reported to police is the true number of violent crimes