1. What kind of crime is robbery? How common is it? Where do most robberies occur? Who is the typical victim? How profitable is robbery? What does it take to be a "good" robber?
2. What is violence? What are the political and ideological aspects of definitions of violence? What does Goode mean by covert, institutional violence? Compare and contrast the biological and sociological theoretical perspectives of violence. What is meant by the idea of "appropriate targets" of violence?
3. Why is family violence an issue? What are public attitudes toward violence in the family?
4. Why does Goode focus on wife beating when violence against husbands is about as common as wife abuse? What is the rate of wife abuse in the U.S.A.? What are the social and personal factors that explain wife abuse? Why do women stay with abusive husbands? What distinguishes women who leave abusive relationships from those that stay?
5. What did Sherman and Beck's study suggest about the effectiveness of formal social response to domestic violence? What does recent research suggest about the effectiveness of intervention strategies?
6. How does the rate of and the public reaction to child battering compare to spouse abuse? What social, historical and economic factors relate to our tolerance of violence against children? Who are the most common abusers of children and why? What are the social and personal factors associated with child abusers?
7. Why does Goode say that incest grows out of a sexually repressive social environment? What types of incest are common in the U.S.A.? Who are the principal targets? Who are the typical abusers? Distinguish incest from sexual victimization. Why is this distinction relevant? What are the rates of incest in the U.S.A. What forms of incest have the most serious effects? What social and family factors are associated with incest? What are the personal and social costs of incest?
8. Why is homicide best thought of as a social construction? Distinguish the variety of forms that homicide can take. What factors play a role in social definitions and tolerance of homicide?
9. What are the myths, the commonsense constructions surrounding murder in the U.S.A.? What are the social characteristics of murders and their victims? Why is the relationship between victim and perpetrator relevant for and understanding of homicide?
10. Why are intimates highly likely to be involved in homicide? Does this mean that we should spend lass time with our families and friends? Why or why not?
11. What is the significance of race, SES, and gender for the analysis of the social reality of murder transactions? What explanations are there for the patterns that are apparent in these categories?
12. What constitutes a subculture of violence? How is victim-precipitated homicide related to a subculture of violence? How can we distinguish violence patterns related to subcultural norms and values from the racial and class differences that characterize violence in the U.S.A.?
13. What is the weapon of choice for homicide in the U.S.A.? What are the pro's and con's of gun control? What do you think of Goode's conclusions?
14. What is the UCR? What does it tell us about patterns of violence and crime in the U.S.A.? What are the problems in making international comparisons of criminal behavior? What do these comparisons indicate about criminal behavior patterns?
15. What is rape? Why is rape a pseudosexual act? What are the characteristics of inclusive, moderately inclusive, moderately exclusive, and exclusive definitions of rape? What are the characteristics of the audiences that hold these definitions of rape?
16. What are the significant differences between the objective reality of rape and the subjective judgments made by the general public, the criminal justice system, and the victims of rape? What are the key elements that explain these differences? How does victim precipitation relate to an understanding of rape?
17. Relate these ideas and concepts to the article, "Convicted Rapists' Vocabulary of Motive" in the Pontell reader.
18. What is the prevalence of rape in the U.S.A.? What are the problems in the official statistics? What kind of women are more likely to report rape? What factors help explain why a woman would fail to report a rape?
19. What is the social reality of marital rape? What is the legal reality of marital rape?
20. What is the difference between the cultural and the psychological explanations for the causes of rape? What are the features of American society, as well as the characteristics of the men who rape and the kind of rapes that occur, that support the cultural argument? What does the research of Abel and Malamuth (discussed in Goode) tell us about the kind of men who rape, or have proclivities to rape?
21. What is Groth's typology of rapists? How does it relate to an understanding of rape as an end point on a continuum of behavior characteristic of dominant American values and norms?
1. What are the different forms of property crime? Who steals in American society? Who are the victims? What is it about life in America that promotes all this stealing?
2. What are the sources students of crime use to analyze property crime patterns in the U.S.A.? What are the problems with these statistical records? How does the American public rate the seriousness of criminal activity?
3. How does Merton's Anomie Theory help us understand motives for stealing in America? What are the social characteristics of individuals and social structural features of American society correlated with the commission of property crimes, as well as with property crime victimization?
4. What are the features of shoplifting that distinguish it as a form of larceny theft? Differentiate between a booster and a snitch. What are the characteristics of the typical shoplifter who is reported to the police? What factors are most relevant in a store representative's decision to report a shoplifter to the police?
5. What is employee pilferage? How can it be considered an unofficial reward system? How does it support the status quo?
6. What are the basic components of the definition of white collar crime? Who brought the concept of white collar crime to the attention of criminologists and sociologists of deviance? Why?7. How does white collar crime differ from street crime in terms of public and legal definitions, response and penalties? How does white collar crime differ from street crimes in terms of victimization?
8. Why is white collar crime rarely recorded or discovered? What are the common features of all white collar crimes?
9. What is organizational deviance? Examples? What is meant by the concept of a criminogenic market structure? Relate this concept to the used car trade. Why is the "Great Electrical Conspiracy" so important to the study of white collar crime? What are the basic elements common to most forms of deviance that are lacking in this case?
10. What is occupational and professional white collar crime? What are some of the most common forms of this type of deviance? What do the concepts of socialization and professional organization have to do with an explanation of these forms of white collar crime?
11. What are the essential features of political and governmental crime? What are the basic categories of this form of deviance? What are the three basic forms of governmental lawlessness that Goode presents as relevant for a discussion of white collar crime? Examples? What basic political reforms would be useful in preventing or regulating governmental deviance?
12. What does research on the perception of the seriousness of white collar crime show? What are the difficulties in enforcing laws against white collar crime? What are the problems in prosecuting white collar criminals? What appears to be one of the most effective means of controlling white collar crime? Are white collar criminals treated more leniently by the courts? Why do white collar crimes attract so little attention, even from sociologists?
13. What kind of crime is robbery? How common is it? Where do most robberies occur? Who is the typical victim? How profitable is robbery? What does it take to be a "good" robber?
14. What are the features of shoplifting that distinguish it as a form of larceny theft? Differentiate between a booster and a snitch. What are the characteristics of the typical shoplifter who is reported to the police? What factors are most relevant in a store representative's decision to report a shoplifter to the police?
15. How does white collar crime differ from street crime in terms of public and legal definitions, response and penalties? How does white collar crime differ from street crimes in terms of victimization?
16. Why is white collar crime rarely recorded or discovered? What are the common features of all white collar crimes?
1. For the purposes of a discussion about drug use as deviant behavior, what factors define a drug? What is meant by the concept of a psychoactive substance? What are the variety of ways in which drugs can be classified? What elements help determine the effect of a particular drug?
2. Distinguish legal instrumental, legal recreational, illegal instrumental and illegal recreational drug use. What have been the changes in legal instrumental use (prescriptions) of psychoactive drugs over the past 30 years? Reasons?
3. What factors seem to be most significant in leading to the passage of legislation against use of a particular drug? Examples? What are the commonly used and abused drugs? What are their objective and subjective effects? How have use patterns and social attitudes varied over the past 100 years? Why? Focus specifically on cocaine and opiate use. Why are these drugs of particular interest to sociologists who study deviance.
4. Clarify the concepts of dependence, addiction and controlled use in relation to the use patterns of the above drugs.
5. What are the significant legal events in drug history? What link, if any, exists between drug use patterns, objective effects, media attention, social attitudes and law? What are Goode's arguments for and against decriminalization of drug use?
6. What are the interpersonal learning processes and the behavioral and cognitive techniques that are required to neutralize the impact of social control activities, and allow for the development of regular use of marijuana?
7. How do social interpretations of alcohol and marijuana use vary in respect to the contingencies of the situation in which the use takes place? What are the critical elements of use (motive, frequency, etc.) that observers take into account in their interpretation? What are the similarities and differences in judgments about alcohol use versus marijuana use?
8. What types of deviance does Gusfield distinguish in his analysis of alcohol use in America? How do they relate to the normative structure of our society? What conditions are necessary for the enactment of legal restrictions? Illustrate with examples of the changing symbolic meanings surrounding alcohol use in America.
9. What kind of a drug is alcohol? What are the effects of alcohol use (personal, physiological, and social)? What is BAC (BAL)? What is the legal limit in most areas? How much does one have to drink to reach that limit?
10. What is meant by the concept of "Drunken Comportment"? What are that factors that relate to understanding human behavior while under the influence? Discuss variability between and within cultures.
11. What is the history of alcohol use patterns and social control activities in America? What factors seem to be the most relevant for understanding changing images, attitudes and laws pertaining to alcohol consumption?
12. What are the social characteristics of drinkers (class, race, gender, religion, and ethnicity)? What are the contingencies that surround the designation of the problem drinker? What is the alcoholic? What is alcoholism?
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/studdev3.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel (rok@umsl.edu)
Last Updated:
Thursday, July 14, 2005 1:58 PM