NCJ Number
186979
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 3-21
Editor(s)
Mercer L. Sullivan
Date Published
2001
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Because the existing evidence on whether religious beliefs and behaviors deter criminal behavior is varied, contested, and inclusive, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of 60 previous studies concerned with the direction and magnitude of the effect of religion on crime.
Abstract
Two methods were used to identify studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis, data base and ancestry searches. Using the 60 resulting studies, information was collected on two measures, effect of religion on crime (dependent variable) and study characteristics (independent variables). Results of the meta-analysis showed religious beliefs and behaviors exerted a moderate deterrent effect on criminal behavior. The studies systematically varied in their estimation of the religion-on-crime effect due to differences in their conceptual and methodological approaches. Further research is recommended to better understand the effect of religion on crime. An appendix contains the inter-correlation matrix for independent variables used in the meta-analysis. 74 references, 3 tables, and 1 figure