Midterm exam due: Saturday, October 23 @ 7 pm
The midterm exam is worth up to 250 points. It will include short-answer and multiple-choice
questions. The best way to prepare for the exam is to answer all the questions below, and then
review your answers. You can enter your answers here and use this document during the exam.
I. Mills, C.W. (1959). The Promise of the Sociological Imagination. The sociological
imagination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
1. What is the sociological imagination, and what does it enable us to do if we have one?
2. What distinction does Mills make between personal troubles and public issues? How
might they be related?
3. Be able to explain at least one example that demonstrates the private troubles/public
issues connection, but do not use one from the reading or discussed in class (so not
unemployment, war, marriage, anxiety/depression, or the city); come up with your own example.
II. Schwalbe, M. (2009). Finding out how the social world works. In J. Ferguson (ed.),
Mapping the Social Landscape (6th ed.) (pp. 32-42). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
1. According to the author, what are the ways we can know things?
2. What are the limitations of these ways of knowing things?
3. How can we create valid and reliable knowledge?
4. What does he mean by valid and reliable knowledge (know the difference between
them)?
5. What is the value of systematic research?
6. What kinds of questions can we ask about society, and which are best suited to
research?
7. Is every interpretation of social facts equivalent?
8. Can we possess complete truth?
III. Jacobs, J. (1961). Death and Life of Great American Cities. Chapter 2: The uses of
sidewalks – safety. In Gates and Stout (Eds.), The City Reader. Pp. 106-111.
1. What are the most vital organs of a city, according to Jacobs?
2. When people say a city is dangerous, what do they really mean, according to Jacobs?
3. What is the main task of a city’s sidewalks and streets, according to Jacobs?
4. What is one way that cities differ from towns and suburbs?
5. Why does she say that people’s fear of danger is nearly the same as having a high
number of actually dangerous events happening on the streets in the city?
6. What cycle does Jacobs say produces a lack of safety on the streets of cities?
7. What does Jacobs say about how cities keep the public peace?
8. Does Jacobs think that crime is related to how dense the city is?
9. What are the three qualities of successful city streets, according to Jacobs?
10. When does the safety of the street work best, according to Jacobs?
11. What do we need on the streets to ensure that people are informally policing them?
12. How do a variety of stores on a street contribute to sidewalk safety?
13. Why does Jacobs call the order maintained on city sidewalks an “intricate ballet”?
IV. Mineo, L. (2021, June 3). Racial wealth gap may be a key to other inequities. The
Harvard Gazette.
1. How does net wealth of a typical Black family compare to that of a typical White family in
the US today?
2. What are the homeownership rates for Black and White families in the US today?
3. According to Muhammad, how did the current racial wealth gap begin?
4. How was racism essential to wealth creation?
5. According to Killewald, how is wealth distinctive from income?
6. What does Chetty & Ackman’s research about absolute mobility say about the American
Dream?
7. What did economists say would be the best strategy to reduce income inequality, which
is strongly tied to the wealth gap?
8. How is the legacy of Jim Crow and racism against Black people expressed today,
according to Katz?
9. According to Jack, what are some of the positive benefits among workers who are more
educated?
10. According to Jack, what influeces access to college?
11. What does Deming say we should do to positively impact intergenerational mobilty?
V. Spievack, N., & Okeke, C. (2020, March 6). How we should talk about racial disparities.
Urban Institute.
1. What are the two different narratives about the US mentioned in the article?
2. What does the historical context of racial disparities reveal about the story we tell about
the United States?
3. According to the article, how does race function in the context of the US?
4. How does talking about racial disparities with historical context challenge bias?
5. Be able to explain how the two different narratives would approach data revealing higher
arrest rates among Black men than among White men.
VI. Hinton, Elizabeth, LeShae Henderson, and Cindy Reed. “An unjust burden: The
disparate treatment of black Americans in the criminal justice system.” Vera Institute of Justice.
May (2018).
1. Review the percentages of Black men and Black women in terms of incarceration and
compared to their respective percentages of the population (p. 2).
2. Be able to define the following and explain how they relate to the history of racial
disparities in American history (p. 2):
a. 13th amendment
b. Black codes
c. Vagrancy laws
d. Convict leasing
3. Be able to explain at least one example of how laws that are race-neutral on their face
produce differential outcomes by race; choose an example from among these laws and law
enforcement strategies: drug-free zone laws, habitual offender and “three strikes” laws, and hot
spots policing (pp. 4-5).
4. What is implicit bias? How does it contribute to differential outcomes in the criminal
justice system? (p. 7)
5. What does research about police bias against Black Americans conclude in terms of
negative outcomes this group faces? (p. 7)
6. In what other components or parts of the criminal justice system has research found bias
against Black people demonstrating negative consequences? (pp. 8-9)
7. What has research concluded about the relationship between poverty and crime? (p. 10)
VII. Miller, J. (2008). Chapter 2: Gender ‘n the ‘Hood: Neighborhood violence against women
and girls. Getting Played: African American girls, urban inequality, and gendered violence (pp.
32-66). New York, NY: NYU Press.
1. What does Miller mean when she says that neighborhood activities “are deeply
gendered”? (p. 32)
2. Miller reviews some research evidence about the impact on young people who witness
extraordinary violence. What sorts of impacts are related to witnessing violence, according to
the research? (p. 34)
3. Miller asked young people in St. Louis whether they felt the neighborhoods they live in
were safer for males or females. What differences did she find in the dangers believed to be
faced by young men and young women? (p. 36)
4. What is meant by “the sexualization of young women”? (p. 39)
5. What is meant by “gendered status hierarchies”? (p. 39)
6. What two factors are related to the higher prevalence of violence against women in
disadvantaged communities? (p. 41)
7. What are the three types or facets of violence that Miller found in the young people’s
accounts of their neighborhoods? (p. 41)
8. In terms of witnessing physical violence against women in their neighborhoods, why
were there few interventions to stop the violence? (p. 47)
9. Why does Miller think these incidents of public violence against women are important?
(p. 47)
10. What were the two kinds of sexual harassment reported by young women in their
neighborhoods? (p. 48)
11. What is the double bind faced by young women who are harassed by their adolescent
peers? (p. 52)
12. In terms of sexual assault and coercion in neighborhoods, what percentage of young
women reported being victimized? (p. 57)
13. In what two ways did young women report they avoid the risks in their neighborhoods?
(p. 61)
14. What are the three limits to their strategies for risk avoidance? (pp. 64-65)
15. How does victim-blaming help young women cope with the risk of sexual violence? (p.
66)
VIII. Rios, V. (2011). Preface and Chapter 1. Punished: Policing the lives of Black and Latino
boys (pp. vii to 23). New York, NY: NYU Press.
1. What do Victor and Pelon, his former fellow gang member, conclude about their group of
“homies” as they review the names on the refrigerator they had tagged when they were younger
men?
2. Why did Rios join the gang when he was 14?
3. What did police tell Rios after his friend Smiley was shot and killed by a rival gang
member?
4. After Smiley’s death, what led to Rios feeling inspired to change his life?
5. What is the “youth control complex,” according to Rios?
6. What does Rios mean by “criminalization”?
7. Who did Rios focus on in this research study, and why did he choose this group on
which to focus?
8. How many youth did he study, how did he study them, and for how long?
9. What research questions does Rios want to answer with this study?
10. How many of the young men in his study had previously been arrested?
11. How many young men in his study had a parent in jail or prison?
12. What are his definitions of “working class,” “working poor,” and living in “extreme
poverty”?
IX. “White flight.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28
Jan. 2021. Web. 1 Feb. 2021.
1. Be able to define white flight. (p. 1)
2. Understand and be able to explain which business practices were related to white flight,
and how they were related. (p. 1)
3. What was legal exclusion and how was it related to white flight? (p. 8)
4. How were roads related to white flight? (p. 8)
5. What are the characteristics of urban decay? (p. 9)
X. Gross, T., Briger, S., Chaloner, T., & Seavy-Nesper, M. (2017, May 3). A ‘forgotten
history’ of how the U.S. government segregated America. Fresh Air. National Public Radio.
1. How did the Federal government further segregation, according to Rothstein?
2. What was redlining?
3. How was suburbanization related to white flight and urban segregation?
4. How is segregation today related to inequality according to Rothstein?
5. How did the Federal Housing Authority justify the racial covenants they created, and
what was the problem with this justification?
6. What did the Federal Housing Administraiton recommend for separation of African
American and White neighborhoods?
7. What is the difference between African American income and White income, on
average? How about for wealth? To what does Rothstein attribute the difference?
8. Why did the 1968 Fair Housing Act fail to promote equity appreciate for African
Americans?
9. For whom was most public housing originally intended in the US?
10. How did the projects (public housing) intended for White people eventually become
homes mostly for African American people?
XI. Freeman, Lance. There Goes the Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up,
Temple University Press, 2005.
1. What was Wilson’s argument about how changes after the civil rights movement
transformed cities? (p. 125)
2. What do all researchers agree about in terms of concentrated poverty? (p. 125)
3. Why has the US moved away from public housing and towards vouchers? (p. 126)
4. What are some definitions of gentrification? (class PowerPoint slide)
5. What is collective efficacy? (pp. 129-130)
6. What are the different kinds of social ties that we find in our relations with neighbors? (p.
146)
7. What are some examples of institutional resources in a neighborhood? (p. 151)
8. Of all the features that the author reviews, which is most likely to benefit residents when
their neighborhood gentrifies? (pp. 155-160)