Religion, social bonds, and delinquency

Although criminologists have generally been indifferent or even hostile to the idea that religion inhibits criminal deviance, evidence of a consistent inverse relationship between religion and deviance—including crime and delinquency—has steadily accumulated over the last three decades. Yet controversy abounds concerning the extent to which this relationship is shaped by offense type, group affiliation, and other religious and social contexts. Some researchers have also claimed that, in fully specified models with controls for secular bonds, religion has no direct impact on delinquency. Using comprehensive measures of religion, secular social bonds, and delinquency, the present study seeks to resolve questions concerning the relative efficacy of religion as an inhibitor of delinquency. Unlike prior research, our models also include measures of three separate dimensions of religiosity (religious activities, salience, and “hellfire") and peer religiosity. In our most fully specified models, we find that general delinquency is not inhibited by either personal religiosity or peer religiosity. Yet, antiascetic acts—those explicitly proscribed in a religious context—were dampened by peer religiosity only.