All Free Sociology MCQs with Answers

• A. biological failings drove some people into crime
• B. no act is intrinsically deviant
• C. criminals were socialized into an underworld of crime
• D. women were less likely to be arrested than menSearch Public Records

Explanation: Lombroso’s positivist theory linked criminal behaviour to inherited biological traits or atavistic features, rather than seeing crime as…

• A. rehabilitation
• B. recidivism
• C. reform
• D. deterrence

Explanation: Recidivism means returning to crime after a previous conviction or period of imprisonment.

• A. burglar alrams
• B. Steering locks
• C. anti-social behavior orders
• D. CCTVTry Prep Courses

Explanation: Target hardening makes crime more difficult by strengthening or protecting a potential target, as with steering locks, burglar alarms and…

• A. New Left Realism
• B. Right Realism
• C. interactionism
• D. new criminology

Explanation: New criminology, influenced by Marxism, interpreted crime and deviance in relation to class power and the interests of the ruling class.

• A. Conformists
• B. innovators
• C. ritualists
• D. retrealists

Explanation: Innovators accept dominant cultural goals, such as wealth, but use illegitimate or unapproved means when legitimate opportunities are…

• A. criminality
• B. recidivism
• C. deviance
• D. degeneracy

Explanation: Deviance is non-conformity to norms accepted by a significant part of a community or society.

• A. victims may not realise that a crime has been committed
• B. it is more difficult to apportion blame to corporate criminals
• C. legal systems are founded on individual not collective responsibility
• D. corporate offences cause less harm than crimes against an individualTrace Family History

Explanation: Corporate offences can cause extensive financial, social and physical harm, so it is incorrect to say they are less harmful than crimes…

• A. individual pathology
• B. social exclusion
• C. political marginalization
• D. relative deprivation

Explanation: Left Realists explain crime through social exclusion, political marginalisation and relative deprivation.

• A. Normlessness
• B. social strain
• C. meaninglessness
• D. social adaptationRun Background Checks

Explanation: For Merton, anomie is the strain produced when society strongly promotes cultural goals but restricts access to legitimate means of…

• A. commitment
• B. stigma
• C. aspiration
• D. motivation
• E. acceptance

Explanation: Labelling theory focuses on how society defines and attaches a stigma to people as deviant, which can shape their identity and future…

• A. involvement
• B. commitment
• C. religiosity
• D. belief
• E. attachment

Explanation: Hirschi identified attachment, commitment, involvement and belief as the four social bonds that restrain deviance.

• A. due to poor parenting
• B. biological
• C. psychotic
• D. learned
• E. the result of being labelledAccess Government Careers

Explanation: Sutherland argued that criminal behaviour is learned through interaction with others, especially through definitions favourable to law…

• A. Sexual assault
• B. drug abuse
• C. counterfeiting
• D. terrorism
• E. robbery

Explanation: Merton’s retreatists reject both culturally approved goals and the legitimate means of achieving them, often withdrawing into drug abuse.

• A. Weber
• B. Cohen
• C. Merton
• D. Marx
• E. Chambliss

Explanation: Robert K. Merton adapted Durkheim’s idea of anomie into modern strain theory, explaining deviance as a response to the gap between…

• A. juvenile
• B. Violent
• C. drug-related
• D. white collarTry Prep Courses

Explanation: Early biological positivists such as Cesare Lombroso concentrated on serious and violent offenders, whom they regarded as showing…

• A. Warning
• B. Boundary setting
• C. Unification
• D. Authoritarian
• E. Solidarity

Explanation: Durkheim’s view of deviance includes the promotion of social solidarity, because a shared threat can unite people around common values.

• A. People who aspire to the upper class
• B. The ruling elite
• C. white collar businessmen
• D. gang members
• E. the lower socio-economic strateConsult Local Attorneys

Explanation: In Richard Quinney’s conflict perspective, crimes of domination and repression are associated with the ruling elite’s use of power over…

• A. Merton
• B. Lynch
• C. Chambliss
• D. Bentham
• E. Turk

Explanation: William Chambliss studied the Saints and the Roughnecks to show how class-based perceptions and labelling can produce unequal treatment of…

• A. informal
• B. societal
• C. traditional
• D. formal
• E. adolescent

Explanation: Formal sanctions are officially prescribed punishments imposed by institutions such as courts, schools or governments.

• A. attributes
• B. realities
• C. Choices
• D. records
• E. Conditions

Explanation: Sociologists define deviance broadly as behaviors, beliefs, or conditions that violate accepted social norms.