All Free Sociology MCQs with Answers

• A. community service
• B. imprisonment
• C. electronic tagging
• D. curfews

Explanation: Community service can be restorative when it requires the offender to make a constructive contribution to the community affected by the offence. Imprisonment, electronic tagging and curfews mainly restrict or monitor the offender.

• A. white-collar crime
• B. corporate crime
• C. victimless crime
• D. organized crime

Explanation: Corporate crime is illegal conduct committed by a company or by people acting on its behalf in the course of business, including breaches of regulatory requirements. White-collar crime is a wider category that can also include offences by individuals in occupational positions.

• A. restorative justice
• B. zero tolerance
• C. target hardening
• D. deterrent sentencingAccess Government Careers

Explanation: Broken-windows theory argues that visible disorder encourages more serious offending, so it is associated with strict enforcement of minor offences, known as zero tolerance. Restorative justice focuses on repairing harm, while target hardening belongs mainly to situational crime prevention.

• A. labelling theory
• B. control theory
• C. functionalist theory
• D. conflict theory

Explanation: Labelling theory treats deviance as a result of social interaction: authorities or groups apply a deviant label to particular people or behaviour. It therefore rejects the idea that deviance is an inherent quality of an individual or group.

• A. international drug dealing via email
• B. The global trade in online pornography
• C. the vandalizing of virtual environments
• D. theft of goods sold via online action websitesRun Background Checks

Explanation: Vandalizing virtual environments is a genuinely new form of offending that depends on digital technology, making it a third-generation cybercrime. Drug dealing, pornography, and theft conducted online are traditional crimes transferred to an online setting.

• A. the new criminology
• B. broken windows theory
• C. situational crime prevention
• D. deviance reduction theory

Explanation: Situational crime prevention reduces opportunities for offending through measures such as CCTV, neighbourhood surveillance, immobilizers, and improved locks. Broken-windows theory explains disorder and enforcement responses, but it is not the name of this opportunity-reduction approach.

• A. deviant behavior is behavior that is labelled so by the law
• B. deviant behavior is behavior that people so label
• C. deviant behavior is that labelled by the perpetrators
• D. deviant behavior is that which causes public offence

Explanation: Howard Becker defined deviance as behaviour that people successfully label as deviant, making social reaction central to the concept. The act itself is not automatically deviant independently of how others define and respond to it.

• A. the concept of 'deviance' is much broader than 'crime'
• B. deviance and crime very often overlap
• C. the concept of deviance can be applied to individuals and groups
• D. deviance is normally sanctioned by lawTake Sociology Courses

Explanation: Deviance is broader than crime because it includes violations of social norms that are not necessarily illegal, such as unusual dress or manners. Thus it is not normally sanctioned by law, although crime and deviance often overlap.

• A. restitution
• B. legalization
• C. radical non-intervention
• D. decriminalization
• E. retribution

Explanation: Radical non-intervention advises authorities to avoid unnecessary intervention, because official reactions can create stigma and reinforce a deviant identity. Restitution and retribution are responses to wrongdoing rather than ways of avoiding labelling.

• A. 1950s
• B. 1980s
• C. 1940s
• D. 1960s
• E. 1970s

Explanation: Labelling theory became prominent in the 1960s through writers such as Howard Becker, Edwin Lemert, and Erving Goffman. The approach developed from interactionist sociology and challenged explanations that treated deviance as an individual defect.