Examining the Antiascetic Hypothesis Through Social Control Theory: Delinquency, Religion, and Reciprocation Across the Early Life Course

Abstract

With empirical research in both sociology of religion and criminology finding conflicting evidence of the directional relationship between religious institutions and delinquency, we test the temporal order of religiosity and delinquency in the early life course. We motivate this research through theories from both subfields, namely, the antiascetic hypothesis from the sociology of religion and social control theory from criminology. We fit cross-lagged panel models to three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the relationship between secular, or mala in se, forms of crime and ascetic, or mala prohibita, forms of crime with the elements of religious social bonds from adolescence through young adulthood. We find support for the antiascetic hypothesis in that religion has effects on mala prohibita behaviors, but not mala in se. Findings regarding bidirectional and reciprocal effects between religion and delinquency encourage extending the antiascetic hypothesis, as well as social control theory, to account for this possibility.