Religiosity and Violence: Are They Related After Considering the Strongest Predictors?

• NCJ Number: 186505
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 28 Issue: 6 Dated: November/December 2000 Pages: 483-496
• Author(s): Brent B. Benda; Nancy J. Toombs
• Editor(s): Kent B. Joscelyn
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The effect of religiosity and church attendance on violence was studied using a sample of 600 men in an Arkansas boot camp, considering also the effects of socio-demographic variables and elements of control, strain, and social learning theories on violence.

Abstract

Specifically, the study sought to determine if religiosity was related to violence, if the effects of religiosity were mediated by the strongest predictors of violence, if church attendance affected violence, if the effects of religiosity on violence were moderated by age, and if the effects of religiosity on violence were moderated by church attendance. Study respondents from the Arkansas boot camp ranged in age from 15 to 47 years, and 75 percent were under 30 years of age. A 150-item questionnaire was administered to each class of 15 to 30 boot camp participants by a staff psychologist. The questionnaire was administered about halfway through the 105-day boot camp program when discipline had been instilled and rapport had been developed between psychologists who conducted group counseling and boot camp participants. Logistic regression analysis indicated religiosity and not church attendance maintained a significant adverse relationship to violence after other study factors were held constant. Despite boot camp admission criteria of no violent offenses, 44 percent of study participants reported committing more than five crimes against persons. Only 30 percent of boot camp participants reported no crimes against persons. The interaction between religiosity and church attendance and between religiosity and advances in age lessened the effects of race and family structure on violence. Also, there was a suppression of the effects of attachment to father on violence until elements of strain theory were considered, and these effects remained significantly related to violence after the addition of social learning factors and moderation effects. 110 references, 2 notes, and 3 tables