Sociological Theories and Their Applications
Select ONLY ONE of questions below and answer it completely. Cite your sources and use MLA or APA style. It should be between a paragraph and a page long.
- Discuss and evaluate Merton’s theory of anomie and the five modes of adaptation.
- Social disorganization theory is one of the three major cultural deviance theories. Explain this theory, including criticisms or limitations.
- Compare and contrast strain theories and cultural deviance theories.
- Albert Cohen’s theory is responsible for major advances in research on delinquency. Discuss Cohen’s theory and then evaluate it.
- Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti developed the subculture of violence theory to explain criminal behavior among young, lower-class, urban males. Discuss the subculture of violence, and then discuss tests of this theory.
- Traditionally, gang membership has been limited primarily to young, inner-city males. However, gang membership has been changing. Discuss what recent studies reveal about female gang members and middle-class gangs and gang membership.
- Explain why regulating smoking in public is an example of social control, and also give another example of similar social control either in your state or elsewhere.
- Explain containment theory and the criticisms that have been directed against it.
- Discuss three programs that have been informed by social control theory.
- Discuss the basic assumptions of labeling theory, and then evaluate the theory.
- Discuss the empirical support for the conflict model.
- Over the last decade, a number of important critical perspectives have emerged, including radical feminist theory, left realism, abolitionist and anarchist criminology, and peacemaking criminology. Discuss three of these perspectives.