The Police in America An Introduction Samuel Walker 9e

The Police in America An Introduction Samuel Walker 9e

Chapter 09

The Police and Crime

Multiple Choice Questions

1. A proactive police anticrime strategy is practiced when police
   A.look for a crime.
   B. receive information about a crime.
   C. themselves initiate the strategy.
   D. profile criminals.

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2. A reactive anticrime strategy is defined as
   A.responding to a crime stopper tip.
   B. the study of crime methods in a certain area.
   C. a response to a citizen request for service.
   D. the methods with no positive impact.

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3. If a reported crime cannot proceed for a variety of legal or environmental factors, police may later choose to
   A.clear the case.
   B. unfound the crime.
   C. investigate it for some other crime.
   D. refer it to another agency.

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4. The basic process in investigating a crime occurs in two stages: the _____ and the follow-up investigation.
   A.preliminary investigation
   B. discretionary investigation
   C. concluding investigation
   D. grand jury investigation

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5. The traditional measure of success in criminal investigation is called the
   A.reliably known.
   B. clearance rate.
   C. UCR rate.
   D. conviction rate.

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6. A person is said to be legally arrested when
   A.the person is in custody and is deprived of his or her liberty by legal authority.
   B. the person believes he or she is not free to go.
   C. an official arrest report is completed.
   D. a warrant is issued in his or her name.

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7. A person is said to be subjectively arrested when
   A.the person is in custody and deprived of his or her liberty.
   B. the person believes he or she is not free to go.
   C. an official arrest report is completed.
   D. a warrant is issued in his or her name.

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8. Eyewitness identification is problematic in investigations as the victim is often
   A.wrong about the crime.
   B. wrong about what happened.
   C. revengeful in their complaint.
   D. traumatized by the crime.

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9. One of the most important sources about criminal activity remains the
   A.forensic evidence.
   B. investigator.
   C. informant.
   D. criminalistics.

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10. Hate crimes are not separate and distinct crimes but are offenses that are motivated by
    A.a social breakdown.
    B. an offender’s bias.
    C. racial opportunity.
    D. antireligious views.

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11. In 2001, President George W. Bush established an innovative gun violence reduction program. What is the program’s name?
    A.No Child Left Behind
    B. Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN)
    C. Operation Firearm Safety
    D. Project Disarmament

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12. Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, terrorism in the United States has
    A.increased.
    B. stayed roughly the same.
    C. become more violent.
    D. decreased.

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13. According to J. Mitchell Miller, who were police buffs?
    A.They were typically those individuals who traded information with the police for drugs.
    B. They served as a source of information to the police to exact revenge on someone on whom they wanted to inflict harm.
    C. They were the most problematic type of informants.
    D. They provided information to the police often on a one-time basis.

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14. According to J. Mitchell Miller, _____ were those individuals who agreed to be informants because of the stress associated with their arrest.
    A.mercenary informants
    B. hammered informants
    C. vengeful informants
    D. police buffs

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15. Which of the following terrorist organizations opposes deforestation, SUVs, and globalization?
    A.American Values Army
    B. Earth Liberation Front
    C. Army of God
    D. Ku Klux Klan

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16. How many agencies is the Department of Homeland Security responsible for coordinating?
    A.22
    B. 53
    C. 104
    D. 35

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17. Which of the following was the most significant change made by the FBI in the wake of the 9/11 attacks?
    A.It created an Intelligence Branch.
    B. It shifted its intelligence gathering responsibilities to the Department of Homeland Security.
    C. It pushed Congress to legalize racial profiling.
    D. It merged with the CIA to better coordinate domestic and foreign intelligence gathering.

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18. What is an example of a proactive anticrime strategy?
    A.citizen calls to report crime
    B. stopping a burglary in progress
    C. drug enforcement
    D. None of the answers is correct.

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19. Which of the following is NOT an example of the roles police play in community-based crime prevention programs?
    A.making arrests
    B. reducing truancy
    C. improving the physical appearance of a neighborhood
    D. eradicating centers of drug activity

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20. What does it mean to “unfound” a crime?
    A.when police officers complete crime reports
    B. when police officers enter the crime report into the UCR
    C. when police officers fail to make an arrest
    D. when police officers do not complete a crime report

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21. The assignment considered by most officers as “high status” is that of a
    A.sergeant.
    B. detective.
    C. beat officer.
    D. gang task force officer.

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22. Criminal investigation offers a clearly defined measure of success. What is this measure?
    A.unfounding a report
    B. uncovering a lead
    C. arresting a suspect
    D. convicting an offender

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23. Which of the following statements is true about property crime units?
    A.They have the smallest workloads.
    B. They have the highest clearance rates.
    C. They rank the lowest in terms of moral significance.
    D. They occupy a higher status than homicide units.

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24. Which of the following detective units has the smallest workloads?
    A.vice units
    B. homicide units
    C. property crime units
    D. narcotics units

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25. Preliminary investigations consist of five basic steps. Which of the following is NOT one of these basic steps?
    A.preparing preliminary reports
    B. securing the crime scene
    C. providing referral information to witnesses
    D. collecting all relevant evidence

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26. The Police Executive Research Forum divides follow-up investigations into three categories. Which of the following is NOT one of these categories?
    A.primary activities
    B. routine activities
    C. secondary activities
    D. tertiary activities

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27. What is a nominal caseload?
    A.cases actually worked by detectives
    B. cases worth attempting to solve
    C. all cases assigned to an officer
    D. cases carrying a high degree of seriousness

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28. What is a workable caseload?
    A.cases which have sufficient leads
    B. all cases assigned to an officer
    C. cases actually worked by a detective
    D. cases carrying a high degree of seriousness

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29. The event referred to as an arrest has four dimensions. Which dimension is defined by the following: “an individual is arrested or in custody when deprived of his or her liberty by legal authority”?
    A.the behavioral dimension
    B. the legal dimension
    C. the official dimension
    D. the subjective dimension

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30. By the end of the 1980s, _____ represented the most serious problem facing the police, the criminal justice system, and American society as a whole.
    A.gambling
    B. drugs
    C. drunk driving
    D. gangs

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31. Four different tactics comprise the traditional supply reduction strategy in combating illegal drug trafficking and use. Which of the following is NOT one of these four tactics?
    A.reducing demand for drugs on the part of potential users
    B. buy-and-busts
    C. long-term undercover work
    D. disrupting the drug syndicate by trading up

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32. What is an example of the demand reduction strategy?
    A.trading up
    B. drug crackdowns
    C. undercover work
    D. D.A.R.E.

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33. Most hate crimes are motivated by
    A.religious bias.
    B. racial or ethnic bias.
    C. sexual orientation bias.
    D. ethnic bias.

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34. What is the function of the FBI’s National DNA Indexing System (NDIS)?
    A.to identify missing children
    B. to store genetic evidence gathered from crime scenes and genetic information from convicted offenders
    C. to store genetic material from murder victims
    D. to support the Department of Homeland Security

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35. Which of the following is NOT a way by which police learn about crimes?
    A.citizen reports
    B. police on-view observation
    C. police initiated investigations
    D. the forensic index of the NDIS

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36. When a citizen reports a crime to a police officer but the police officer does not complete a crime report, this is called
    A.clearing a crime.
    B. unfounding a crime.
    C. being lazy.
    D. a statistical disagreement.

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37. In practice, patrol officers make about _____ of all arrests.
    A.10 percent
    B. 30 percent
    C. 40 percent
    D. 80 percent

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38. According to J. Mitchell Miller, which of the following is a type of informant who is most likely to be motivated by money?
    A.the vengeful informant
    B. the supportive informant
    C. the hammered informant
    D. the mercenary informant

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39. According to J. Mitchell Miller, which of the following statements is true about vengeful informants?
    A.They were typically motivated by power and authority.
    B. They were almost always crack addicts.
    C. They agreed to become informants solely to avoid informal sanctions by the police.
    D. They included individuals who they believed cheated them out of money.

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40. A Rand Corporation report indicated that detective work is
    A.superficial, routine, and nonproductive.
    B. exciting and interesting.
    C. exciting but very demanding.
    D. the best place for officers to start their career.

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41. Which of the following statements is true about reporting of crime?
    A.Citizens are more likely to report minor crimes than serious crimes.
    B. Males are less likely than females to report a violent crime to the police.
    C. African Americans and those with lower incomes are less likely to report a crime than are whites and those with higher incomes.
    D. Women report property crimes less often than males do to the police.

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42. Robbery has low clearance rates because
    A.it is usually committed by a stranger, affecting the identification of suspects.
    B. it is a low-solvability crime.
    C. it is reported by individuals who have low incomes or reside in poor neighborhoods.
    D. it is not a violent crime.

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43. A PERF study of burglary and robbery investigations found that about 25 percent of all burglary cases receive slightly less than _____ of investigative work.
    A.two hours
    B. four hours
    C. six hours
    D. eight hours

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44. Which of the following supply reduction strategies is a police officer deploying when he or she arrests low-level drug dealers and offers them leniency in return for information about higher-level drug dealers?
    A.trading up
    B. buy-and-bust
    C. double tap
    D. carding

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45. Which of the following crimes had the lowest clearance rate in 2014?
    A.murder
    B. rape
    C. robbery
    D. burglary

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46. Nationally, only about _____ of all reported index crimes are cleared.
    A.20 percent
    B. 33 percent
    C. 40 percent
    D. 59 percent

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47. A person is _____ whenever the person believes he or she is not free to go.
    A.behaviorally arrested
    B. subjectively arrested
    C. legally arrested
    D. officially arrested

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48. An individual is _____ only when the police make an official arrest report of it.
    A.behaviorally arrested
    B. subjectively arrested
    C. legally arrested
    D. officially arrested

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49. According to the text, of the 230 people who have been exonerated because of DNA testing, over 75% involved
    A.cases of mistaken identity.
    B. proved paternity claims.
    C. the discovery of inherited traits.
    D. the identification of a gene for criminality.

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50. Many police agencies today are abolishing specialized investigative units and creating general investigative units within each command area. This is an example of _____ in investigative units.
    A.functional changes
    B. procedural changes
    C. structural changes
    D. administrative changes

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51. Informants are an important source of information about criminal activity. They are especially useful in _____ investigations.
    A.murder
    B. armed robbery
    C. victimless crime
    D. tax fraud

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52. The D.A.R.E. program is an example of a _____ for controlling drugs.
    A.demand reduction strategy
    B. reduction through education strategy
    C. reduction through treatment strategy
    D. supply reduction strategy

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53. The 2004 National Youth Gang Survey reported that there were _____ gang members active in the United States.
    A.369,000
    B. 461,000
    C. 500,000
    D. 850,000

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54. What is perhaps the best-known directed patrol effort aimed at reducing gun violence?
    A.the Chicago Safe Streets Program
    B. the New York Central Park Program
    C. the Kansas City Gun Experiment
    D. the Denver Firearms Experiment

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True / False Questions

55. Police officers have limited discretion in deciding whether to make an arrest or not.
    FALSE

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56. In the context of crime control strategies, hot-spots programs are directed at specific places believed to be the centers of high levels of criminal activity.
    TRUE

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57. Contrary to popular belief, detective work is neither glamorous nor exciting.
    TRUE

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58. The traditional measure of success in criminal investigation is the clearance rate.
    TRUE

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59. The most dependable evidence to assure a criminal conviction is eyewitness identification.
    FALSE

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60. Despite the great publicity they receive, fingerprints are rarely used in solving most crimes.
    TRUE

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61. Most evaluations of D.A.R.E. have not found any significant reduction in actual drug use as a result of the program.
    TRUE

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62. Guns account for less than 50 percent of all homicides.
    FALSE

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63. The 2001 attack on the World Trade Center was the first act of terrorism conducted by foreigners in the United States.
    FALSE

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64. The worst corruption in police departments has been found in homicide units.
    FALSE

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65. The process of investigating a crime consists of two basic strategies: the preliminary investigation and the follow-up investigation.
    TRUE

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66. Most cases receive one day or less of investigative work.
    TRUE

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67. The clearance rate is a reliable performance measure for criminal investigations.
    FALSE

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68. Clearance rates are highest for violent crime because they involve direct contact between offender and victim.
    TRUE

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69. The police solve only 20 percent of all index crimes each year.
    TRUE

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70. The age of an individual directly influences the reporting of crime.
    FALSE

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Essay Questions

71. What are three reasons that a police officer might unfound a crime?

Answer may vary

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72. What are the different crime control strategies classified by Lawrence W. Sherman?

Answer may vary

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73. What are some of the myths about detective work?

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74. What are the five basic steps in a preliminary investigation?

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75. What are the three major changes in investigations that have been inspired by community policing?

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76. Undercover police work presents a number of special problems for the police. Explain each of those problems.

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77. What are the four different tactics used in the supply reduction strategy of drug enforcement?

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78. The traditional supply reduction strategies have never proved to be effective. What are the three reasons that explain this failure?

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79. Why is the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program extremely popular?

Answer may vary

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