In support of his new book, More God Less Crime, Byron Johnson, of Baylor, has put up a wonderful website about the relationship of religion and crime.
Years ago, an undergraduate student and I published a meta-analysis of this literature, and we found an overall negative correlation between religion on crime. (I.e., religious involvement and affiliation corresponded with less criminal behavior). I haven't done much in the area since, and clearly this book is the definitive statement on research on this area. (Also, it's a great book-support site).
Check it out.
3 comments:
You say: "we found an overall negative effect of religion on crime." You found religion increases crime?
I meant negative in a statistical sense not a moral sense. So, as religion goes up, crime goes down. Thanks for the question; I'll clarify it in the post.
Thanks for the tip! I just clicked on the website and am exploring it now.
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