NCJ Number
77302
Date Published
1979
Length
41 pages
Annotation
Data from a national sample of delinquency characteristics among 16-year old boys in 87 high schools were examined to determine the degree to which community religious climate and individual attitudes toward religion influence delinquency rates.
Abstract
The study involved 25 boys at each of the schools who periodically completed questionnaires and tests between 1966 and 1970. Data on individual States were not available; study results were aggregated by region. Relevant instruments included a Religious Values Index composed of Likert-type items related to religious beliefs and self-reporting delinquency climate was negatively related to delinquency, while individual attitudes toward religion bore no relationship to youth crime. Boys from schools where scores on the Religious Values Index were generally high reported less delinquency even if their own scores on the index were relatively low. In schools where scores on this instrument were generally low, even boys who scored high on the index reported delinquent acts. Schools identified as having low moral climates were concentrated in the western region of the Nation, and further analysis using subjects' State of birth as a basis for assigning State locations to the schools indicated that most of these schools were located along the Pacific coast. Earlier studies of the effect of religion on delinquency rates were centered on California, an area of low community religious climate; they indicated that no relationship existed between these factors. Additional study is needed; however, the antireligious bias of many social scientists has acted to prevent study in more religious communities. Tabular data, footnotes, and 21 references are included.