Midterm Exam Study Guide: Violence in America-Spring, 2008
MIDTERM date: next Tuesday, March 10th
Format of Exam: 3-4 questions, essay style exam. The exam questions will be taken from the list below.
Required Readings from Text:chapters 1-5, 12, 14
Other Readings: See weekly schedule on my faculty webpage for other readings, my detailed lectures, etc. Use these materials to prepare your answers to the study questions below.
As you look at the questions I list below, you will notice that your answers require two things: (1) knowledge of the facts needed to answer the question, and (2) critical thinking skills.
Review Questions:
1. Describe both short term and long term trends in violence in the United States: are we more violent today than in the past?Explain
2. Describe the characteristics of homicide offenders and victims (age, gender, race, location, etc). What do we learn by examining these characteristics? Is it possible to accurately profile potential murderers( including mass murderers and serial/ spree killers) using this information, along with other background data?
(3) Is there really a difference between women who kill and men who kill?
(4) What is the relationship between different types of drug use/abuse and various forms of violence?How does this knowledge of the relationship between drugs and violence help us prevent violence?
(5) How different are homicide offenders from their victims? Based on known offending and victimization risk factors, offer a possible homicide prevention strategy.
(6)What is a false positive? What is a false negative? What is the difference between a clinical assessment and an actuarial assessment tool?If YOU were asked to set up a risk-driven criminal justice system targeting violence reduction, which risk instruments would you use and which types of errors would you try to prevent: false positives or false negatives?
(7) Describe the nature and extent of the school violence problem and then highlight the key findings from the SafeSchool Initiative Report (class handout summarizes the report; available on my webpage).
(8) Could the violent crimes committed by Kip Kinkel have been prevented? If so, how? Did Kip fit a “profile” of a school shooter? ( explain).
(9) Highlight the key assumptions of each of the following theories of violence causation: biological, psychological, sociological, and classical theories. Which theory do you prefer? Why?
(10) Describe the gang-violence connection and then discuss current gang intervention strategies, such as Operation Ceasefire.