Q8 - Criminologist: Increasing the current

[dsorchestra90]

Criminologist: Increasing the current prison term for robbery will result in no significant effect in discouraging people from committing robbery

I eliminated A because thrill seekers will enjoy the risk of a longer prison term, and thus the increase won't work. I eliminated B because the analogy of embezzlement agrees with the conclusion. I eliminated D because most people don't think they will get caught anyway. I eliminated E because people don't know the term in the first place, so increasing it should have no effect. I was wondering is C TCR? and if so Why? Is the crime lately due to the decrease in prison length?

[bbirdwell]

Yes, the answer is (C). It's a great answer because you eliminated the other 4 for logical reasons. Also, it does nothing whatsoever to support the conclusion.

The conclusion is that increasing prison terms will not discourage potential robbers. Saying that prison terms have decreased lately has nothing at all to do with the effect of an increase in prison terms. The question you asked about the crime lately is irrelevant. Try to focus on the direct logic of the conclusion without getting imaginative.

Think of this analogy: Eating bigger milkshakes won't make me gain weight.

(C) Lately I've been eating smaller milkshakes.

This clearly does not support the argument.

[ufoliu26]

I chose B instead of C. Isn't embezzlement is a different crime from robbery? I remember there was some strengthen question I did in the past had a wrong answer similar like B, which talks about something different from the stimulus with the same cause and same effect. However, there are strengthen questions have answer choice like this to be correct. I want to know to what extend an answer choice like this really supports or not supports the stimulus. Also, why C is not correct? If the prison terms for robbery decreased in length recently, wouldn't it actually support the argument?

[demetri.blaisdell]

Thanks for posting, ufoliu26. This is a good strengthen EXCEPT question because the answer choices give examples of common strengthen language. The one weird thing is that instead of an argument core above, we actually just get a conclusion. So we're really trying on premises. It's the same process though.

Conclusion: increasing prison term for robbery will not discourage people from committing robbery

Answers:

(A) strengthens. If people rob because they are seeking risks, then they probably won't be deterred by increasing the penalty. The whole point is they like the thrill/risk.

(B) also strengthens. You are right that embezzlement is a different crime. But it's an example of another crime where they tried increasing the penalty and it didn't work. That's an example of what the conclusion says. Of course, it would strengthen more if we heard about robbery (or larceny or some similar crime) but it still strengthens if they increased the sentence for any crime and it didn't deter people.

(C) doesn't strengthen so it's the correct answer. We don't know if this strengthens or weakens our argument because it doesn't connect the sentence to the frequency of the crime. If sentences went down and nothing happened, this would strengthen. But if sentences went down and crime went up, then it weakens. Because we don't know which happened, this has no effect on the argument.

(D) strengthens like (A) does. If people don't think they'll get caught, they aren't worried about the sentence so it won't deter them to increase it.

(E) is like (A) and (D). If they have no idea what the sentence is, then changing it probably won't affect people's decision to rob or not.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Demetri

[ConnorL87]

I chose (A) as the answer because I thought this answer choice most weakened the conclusion! If "many people who rob are primarily motivated by thrill-seeking and risk-taking", then wouldn't increasing the prison term increase the level of thrill and risk associated with robbery, thereby possibly encouraging more people who would rob to commit the crime?? I saw (C) as unsupportive at first too, but thinking (A) directly counteracted the claim, I figured maybe you'd assume the criminologist was aware of the fact that prison terms for robbery had decreased lately, because if it were true then that might be the exact thing the criminologist based their conclusion on...