Religious Participation and Criminal Behavior

Abstract

This chapter examines and summarizes the current state of our knowledge regarding the relationship between religious participation and criminal behavior, especially in regard to crime reduction, offender rehabilitation, and offender aftercare. Aided by multiple systematic reviews of the relevant research literature, this chapter confirms that religious participation influences the behavior of many people in multiple settings such as family, peers, and school. The overwhelming majority of studies reviewed document the importance of religious participation in protecting individuals from harmful outcomes as well as promoting beneficial and prosocial outcomes. As policy makers consider strategies to reduce delinquency, gang violence, crime, and prisoner reentry, it is essential to seriously and intentionally consider the role religious institutions and religious practices are willing to play in implementing, developing, and sustaining multifaceted approaches to crime reduction. From after-school programs for disadvantaged youth to public/private partnerships that bring together secular and sacred groups to address problems like prisoner reentry, it is increasingly apparent that any crime-fighting strategy will be needlessly incomplete unless communities of faith and their vast networks of social and spiritual support are integrally involved.