1. A2 Unit 4 practice exam questions.
Section 1 – Crime and Deviance (21 marks)
1. Assess the view that crime is the product of labelling processes.
2. Assess the view that crime is inevitable because capitalism is criminogenic.
3. Assess the value of the right realist approach to crime and deviance.
4. Assess the value of the chivalry thesis in understanding gender differences in crime.
5. Assess some of the reasons for difference in ethnicity and crime rates.
6. Assess some of the reasons for differences in class and crime rates.
7. Assess the view that the media stimulate moral panics and create folk devils.
8. Examine some of the relationships between crime and globalisation.
9. Assess sociological views of crime reduction strategies.
10. Assess the usefulness of different sociological approaches to suicide.
11. Assess different sociological approaches to social control.
12. Examine some of the reasons for the existence of deviant subcultures.
13. Assess the view that gender is the best predictor of criminality.
14. Assess the usefulness of official crime statistics for an understanding of patterns of crime.
Section 2 – Crime in the context of research methods (15 marks)
1. Assess the strengths and limitations of using official statistics for the study of ethnic groups
and crime.
2. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using experiments to investigate power and
authority in prisons.
3. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using questionnaires to investigate violent crime.
4. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using structured interviews to investigate the real
rate of street crime.
5. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using observation to investigate the judicial process.
6. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using public and personal documents to investigate
corporate crime.
7. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using participant observation to investigate gang
culture.
8. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using structured interviews to investigate suicide.
Section 3 – Theory and Methods (33 marks)
1. Assess the usefulness of functionalist theory to an understanding of society as a functional
unit.
2. Marxism is no longer relevant to an understanding of contemporary society. To what extent
do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?
3. Assess the usefulness of feminism and feminist research to an understanding of society.
4. Assess the usefulness of microsociology to our understanding of society.
5. Assess the extent to which the structure / agency debate has been resolved.
6. Assess the extent to which theories of modernity are relevant to understanding
contemporary society.

2. 7. Assess the extent to which sociological arguments and evidence support the view that
society has entered a stage of postmodernity.
8. Assess the extent to which positivism can be seen as a useful theory of methodology in
sociological research.
9. Alternative theories of methodology are far more useful for gaining an understanding of
society today than those used by positivists. To what extent do sociological arguments and
evidence support this view of sociological research?
10. Sociology is not very useful in informing social policy. To what extent do sociological
arguments and evidence support this claim?
11. Assess the view that survey-based research does not produce a valid picture of social
behaviour.
12. Assess the view that qualitative data is the most valid and reliable type of data.
13. Assess the practical, ethical and theoretical factors that sociologists face in conducting
research.
14. Sociology can be like the natural sciences. To what extent do sociological arguments and
evidence support this view?
15. Assess the extent to which sociology can be value-free and objective.
16. “Sociology cannot and should not be a science.” To what extent do sociological arguments
and evidence support this view?