Escaping from the crime of inner cities: Church attendance and religious salience among disadvantaged youth

With the theoretical backdrop of social disorganization and "resilient yout h" perspectives, we hypothesize that individual religiosity is protective i n helping at-risk youths such as those living in poor inner-city areas to e scape from drug use and other illegal activities. To test this hypothesis, we draw data from an interview survey of 2,358 youth black males from tract s in poverty in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, conducted in 1979 and 19 80. Results from a series of multilevel analyses indicate that church atten dance (the frequency of attending religious services) has significant inver se effects on nondrug illegal activities, drug use, and drug selling among disadvantaged youths. Religious salience (the perceived importance of relig ion in one's life), however, is not significantly linked to reductions in j uvenile delinquency. we discuss the implications of our findings, focusing on individual religiosity as a potentially important protective factor for disadvantaged youths.