Name and describe Merton’s five modes of adaptation.
What will be an ideal response?
Conformity is the adaptation in which lower-class members cope with their strain by continuing to pursue the culturally approved goals (i.e., the American Dream or money and stuff) through the legitimate means. These means could include working hard and saving money, joining the military, etc. The remaining four adaptations can be discussed in the same format. In abbreviated format, they would be: Innovation, for which goals are pursued but legitimate means are not used (e.g., drug dealers, other criminal behavior). Ritualism, for which the goals are not pursued, but the boundaries of legitimate means are not overstepped (e.g., status may be pursued via the community). Retreatism participates in neither the goals or the means. Merton says the best examples for this is drug addicts and skid-row alcoholics. Finally, rebellion, for which there is a desire to change the goals and therefore the means (e.g., environmentalists--or the ‘green’ movement).
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What is the best explanation for a lack of female offenders in the criminal justice system today?
a. Currently, they are less likely to be prosecuted for their crimes and more likely to receive shorter sentences. b. They engage in fewer street crimes that would lead to incarceration. c. They are less likely to engage in drug-related crimes. d. They are less likely to commit capital offenses.
Hoffman says that one can argue that terrorism does "work" because
a. it kills a lot of people. b. the end goal, acquisition of power in government, is almost always achieved. c. if it didn't, it wouldn't be so widely popular. d. positive or negative, attention is drawn to the cause of the terrorists.
The primary cause of crime in Freudian psychology is an underdeveloped superego
a. TRUE b. FALSE