RELIGION AND CRIME REEXAMINED - THE IMPACT OF RELIGION, SECULAR CONTROLS, AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY ON ADULT CRIMINALITY

Since Hirschi and Stark's (1969) surprising failure to find religious (''hellfire'') effects on delinquency, subsequent research has general ly revealed an inverse relationship between religiosity and various fo rms of deviance, delinquency, and crime. The complexity of the relatio nship and conditions under which it holds, however, continue to be deb ated. Although a few researchers have found that religion's influence is noncontingent, most have found support-especially among youths-for effects that vary by denomination, type of offense, and social and/or religious context. More recently the relationship has been reported as spurious when relevant secular controls are included. Our research at tempts to resolve these issues by testing the religion-crime relations hip in models with a comprehensive crime measure and three separate di mensions of religiosity. We also control far secular constraints, reli gious networks, and social ecology. We found that, among our religiosi ty measures, participation in religious activities was a persistent an d noncontingent inhibiter of adult crime.