Introduction
Religion and crime are two popular topics in our society. A lot of research has been done on the relationship between the two. Church attendance was the variable used as the measurement of “religion” in one’s life. One article used a belief in heaven and hell as the variable instead.
Hypothesis
I believe my hypothesis is correct, because religions teach about having morals and ethics. Many religions believe having proper ethics will reward you either later in life, or in the afterlife.
Research
The Relationship Between Religion and Crime
Reading the research articles, nearly all of them concluded the same thing. Individuals who have religion in their life do not commit less crime than individuals who do have religion. According …show more content…
According to John Dililio’s article (2009), there are not enough religion-crime related statistics to make any statement on their correlation. One problem about studying this topic is that social scientists who study crime ignore religion as a variable and ignore studies of crime, criminal behavior, and crime policy than use it. A study done by Paul Heaton (2006) on the relationship between religion and crime showed that the correlation between religion and crime varied anywhere between .55 and .90. An explanation for this is endogeneity bias, which skewed the data. The endogeneity problem comes from local crime rates on religious participation. His explanation is that counties with more denominations will have a less pronounced endogeneity bias than counties with less …show more content…
(Johnson, B., Larson, D., De Li, S., & Jang, S., 2000). A study on 2,358 young black males showed the correlation between church attendance and crime rates. Although church attendance was linked to an inverse effect on these activities, there still was not enough evidence to prove than church attendance reduces delinquency rates among youth. An issue with researching this topic is than most research has failed to consider than in areas where commitment to a church is expected among its members, crime still exists due to wide diversities of experiences and attitudes (Knudten, R. & Knudten, M., 1971). An interview after complaints of 2,137 delinquent boys by the Detroit police stated than of the boys, 4 percent attended church regularly, 25 percent attended occasionally, 16 percent seldom, and 14 percent never attended church (Wattenberg,
Religion and crime are two popular topics in our society. A lot of research has been done on the relationship between the two. Church attendance was the variable used as the measurement of “religion” in one’s life. One article used a belief in heaven and hell as the variable instead.
Hypothesis
I believe my hypothesis is correct, because religions teach about having morals and ethics. Many religions believe having proper ethics will reward you either later in life, or in the afterlife.
Research
The Relationship Between Religion and Crime
Reading the research articles, nearly all of them concluded the same thing. Individuals who have religion in their life do not commit less crime than individuals who do have religion. According …show more content…
According to John Dililio’s article (2009), there are not enough religion-crime related statistics to make any statement on their correlation. One problem about studying this topic is that social scientists who study crime ignore religion as a variable and ignore studies of crime, criminal behavior, and crime policy than use it. A study done by Paul Heaton (2006) on the relationship between religion and crime showed that the correlation between religion and crime varied anywhere between .55 and .90. An explanation for this is endogeneity bias, which skewed the data. The endogeneity problem comes from local crime rates on religious participation. His explanation is that counties with more denominations will have a less pronounced endogeneity bias than counties with less …show more content…
(Johnson, B., Larson, D., De Li, S., & Jang, S., 2000). A study on 2,358 young black males showed the correlation between church attendance and crime rates. Although church attendance was linked to an inverse effect on these activities, there still was not enough evidence to prove than church attendance reduces delinquency rates among youth. An issue with researching this topic is than most research has failed to consider than in areas where commitment to a church is expected among its members, crime still exists due to wide diversities of experiences and attitudes (Knudten, R. & Knudten, M., 1971). An interview after complaints of 2,137 delinquent boys by the Detroit police stated than of the boys, 4 percent attended church regularly, 25 percent attended occasionally, 16 percent seldom, and 14 percent never attended church (Wattenberg,