LSAT 105 – Section 2 – Question 22

LSAT 105 - Section 2 - Question 22

February 1999

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT105 S2 Q22
+LR
+Exp
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Rule-Application +RuleApp
A
14%
163
B
6%
161
C
26%
163
D
2%
157
E
52%
167
150
165
179
 +Hardest 145.978 +SubsectionMedium

J.Y.’s explanation

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To hold criminals responsible for their crimes involves a failure to recognize that criminal actions, like all actions, are ultimately products of the environment that forged the agent’s character. It is not criminals but people in the law-abiding majority who by their actions do most to create and maintain this environment. Therefore, it is law-abiding people whose actions, and nothing else, make them alone truly responsible for crime.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that law-abiding people are solely responsible for crime. This is based on the assertions that (1) criminal actions, like all actions, are products of the environment, and (2) law-abiding people do the most to create and maintain the environment.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author’s conclusion contradicts parts of the reasoning. The author uses as a premise the claim that all actions are products of the environment. Because this means criminals’ actions are products of the environment, the author believes criminals are not responsible for their crimes. But law-abiding persons’ actions that create the environment would also be products of the environment, and thus they should not be responsible for their actions, either. The conclusion, however, asserts law-abiding people are responsible for crime.

A
it exploits an ambiguity in the term “environment” by treating two different meanings of the word as though they were equivalent
The author does not shift between multiple meanings of “environment.” “Environment” throughout the stimulus refers to the surroundings, conditions, and circumstances of a person’s life.
B
it fails to distinguish between actions that are socially acceptable and actions that are socially unacceptable
The stimulus concerns responsibility for crime. The distinction between socially acceptable and socially unacceptable plays no role in the reasoning. Even if you believe crime is socially unacceptable, the author does not fail to distinguish between crime and law-abiding actions.
C
the way it distinguishes criminals from crimes implicitly denies that someone becomes a criminal solely in virtue of having committed a crime
The argument does not deny that one becomes a “criminal” solely by committing a crime. There’s a difference between what gives someone the status of “criminal” (which is what (C) is about) and what causal factors lead one to commit crimes (which is what the stimulus is about).
D
its conclusion is a generalization of statistical evidence drawn from only a small minority of the population
There is no statistical evidence presented. And, the conclusion is not a generalization from what’s true about a small minority of the population.
E
its conclusion contradicts an implicit principle on which an earlier part of the argument is based
In denying the responsibility of criminals, the author uses the implicit principle that one is not responsible for actions that are a product of one’s environment. But the author contradicts this principle when claiming that law-abiding persons are responsible for crime.

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LSAT PrepTest 105 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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