2007CCJ- Crime and Realism

Right realists believed there were at least six causes of crimes: (pick 3)

• A breakdown in social order

• Some people commit crimes as a deliberate rational choice

• Opportunity for crime

• Harsher welfare policies, increased unemployment, poverty and job insecurity

The General Theory of Crime believes that the offender and the criminal act are:

• socially constructed

• The same

• not the cause of crime

• Different

Social control theory seeks to

• explain how and why people adhere to social norms through social control

• explain how social controls are the cause of crime

• explain why crime is more frequent in places with low social control

• expalin why social control factors exist

New Leftist Realists did not believe that crime can be reduced by:

• Community Control

• Incarceration

• Community Policing

• Structural Responses

The research posed by Robert Martinson (1974) suggested that there had been no improvements in crime reduction based in the current and previous methods.

• True

• False

Punitive Populism refers to:

• the use of criminal justice sanctions for purposes of punishment

• the existence of popular sentiments, beliefs, or ideologies held by particular groups

• the idea that punitive punishments should be available to the wider public to use

• the idea that public support for more severe criminal justice policies has become a primary driver of policy making

Which of the below is a only criticism of right realist:

• Amalgamation of existing theories

• Overstates offenders' rationality

• Lack of attention to white collar and other types of crime

• Lack of attention to structural issues

According to ration choice theories, crime occurs when an offender decides the risk of committing the crime is less than the benefit of committing the crime.

• True

• False

Broken Windows Theory suggests two different manifestations:

• Emotional

• Behaviour

• Physical

• Structural

Rational Choice Theory has a number of assumptions (pick two)

• Crime increases when the risk of getting caught is low

• Crime occurs when a person with criminal traits is provided with acriminal environment.

• Crime increases when there is an oppourtunity

• Crime occurs when an offender is irrational.