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Religious Beliefs and Public Support for Prisoner Reentry
Abstract
The sustainability of the modern prisoner reentry movement may rest heavily upon public support. Although little is known about how public opinion toward reentry is shaped, religion is potentially a key contributor. Several studies indicate that religious perspectives affect public attitudes toward punishment and rehabilitation. The current study aims to determine whether religious beliefs contribute to support for or opposition against three distinct approaches to prisoner reentry. Using survey data obtained from a randomly selected sample of a nationally representative Midwestern state, multivariate regression models were used to examine whether feelings of religious forgiveness and belief in a punitive God affected attitudes toward transitional programming, transitional housing, and assisting post-release offenders through housing agencies. Respondents who felt greater religious forgiveness and had less belief in a punitive God more strongly supported transitional programming and transitional housing and expressed greater opposition to denying housing assistance for recently released offenders. Both advocates and opponents of reentry initiatives should consider religious beliefs when attempting to gain support for their respective positions.
... Although there exists an extensive literature on attitudes toward punishment, relatively little research has explored public sentiments concerning the prison reentry process (for some exceptions, see B. Garland, Wodahl, & Cota, 2016;B. Garland, Wodahl, & Smith, 2017;Leverentz, 2011;Manza, Brooks, & Uggen, 2004;Rade, Desmarais, & Mitchell, 2016). Furthermore, within this limited body of work, very few studies have examined public sentiments regarding the availability of criminal records and their use by potential employers in hiring decisions (Denver, Pickett, & Bushway, 2018;Lageson, Denver, & Picke ...
... Prior research also has shown that such sentiments can be heightened by crime-related factors, authoritarian political attitudes, perceptions of dangerousness, and retributive values (Edwards & Mottarella, 2015;Hardcastle, Bartholomew, & Graffam, 2011;Hirschfield & Piquero, 2010) but tempered by personal contact with these individuals (Rade et al., 2016), valuing forgiveness (B. Garland et al., 2017), and belief in the capacity of people to change (Ouellette, Applegate, & Vuk, 2017). ...
... Theoretically, these findings indicate that, like other public preferences surrounding reentry issues (B. Garland et al., 2017;Rade et al., 2016), attitudes toward the use of criminal records by potential employers originate from different sources than those concerning punishment itself, which prior research has consistently demonstrated to be more expressive than utilitarian (Brown & Socia, 2017;Cullen et al., 2000;Tyler & Boeckmann, 1997;Unnever & Cullen, 2010b). ...
Much prior research has examined the sources of individuals’ attitudes toward the application of punishment via the justice system. Some findings from this literature suggest that punitive attitudes are expressive, retributive, and closely connected to racial resentment. Other research, however, emphasizes that these sentiments are instrumental, utilitarian, and associated with the management of perceived risk. To date, little research has explored public attitudes regarding employment as a reentry barrier, and it is unclear which of these perspectives is more salient for understanding support for employers’ use of criminal records in hiring decision-making. Using survey data on a national sample of American adults (N = 1,202), the current study finds stronger support for an instrumental model than an expressive model.
... Studies on correlates between religious beliefs and support for general rehabilitation offer additional insight. Garland, Wodahl, and Smith (2017) found several religious predictors of support for prisoner reentry initiatives. Individuals who feel greater forgiveness for sinners and those who belief in a more forgiving God are more likely to support policies such as transitional programming and transitional housing. ...
... For instance, race may affect views toward registrants. Studies suggest that Blacks and Hispanics may be either less accepting of ex-offenders and view registrants as more risky than Whites or alternatively be more accepting and less fearful (Garland et al., 2017;Hirschfield & Piquero, 2010), and that Asians may be particularly punitive toward registrants (Socia, Dum, & Rydberg, 2019). This may be important when considering congregations that are made up largely of one race. ...
... Thus, the prior research has found that religiosity can help predict attitudes toward rehabilitation (Garland et al., 2017). Furthermore, there are certain demographic characteristics that predict attitudes toward registrants generally. ...
Previous research has explored the impact of faith and religion on recidivism. However, it focused primarily on violent offenders, drug users, tax evaders, and so on. Missing is an examination of registered sex offenders (RSOs) and the role religion and religiosity play in facilitating reentry. Religiosity and religious organizations may play a role in increasing social bonds and reducing isolation in RSOs. In addition, being surrounded by a faith-based community could act as a catalyst for identity transformation from a RSO to a community member. Using a national online sample of U.S. adults, this research investigates individual’s support of policies controlling sex offenders in religious communities and how demographic characteristics affect these views. Results suggest that Protestants and Other (non-Catholic) Christians are the most accepting of RSOs in places of worship. In addition, the stronger an individual’s faith, the less accepting they are of RSOs. Older, liberal, and educated respondents are more accepting of RSOs.
... However, South Carolinians were split on whether people without records should be given hiring preference during hard economic times. Like Garland et al. (2015Garland et al. ( , 2016, Ouellette et al. (2016) found that respondent demographics were inconsistently related to attitudes toward reentry. However, Ouellette et al. (2016) did not include a measure of political ideology. ...
... However, because there are large racial and gender differences in criminal justice experiences (Travis et al., 2014), it would not be surprising to observe similar differences in attitudes. One realtively consistent finding from the extant literature on public attitudes is that right-wing political ideology reduces support for reentry initiatives (Garland et al., 2015(Garland et al., , 2016. Therefore, we expect Republicans to be less likely than their political counterparts to support BTB strategies, and more likely to support application-stage criminal record inquires. ...
... If so, when do respondents believe this inquiry should first occur? Figure 1 reentry has found few demographic cleavages (Garland et al., 2015(Garland et al., , 2016. But, given that the prevalence of criminal records varies across racial, gender, and socioeconomic groups (Pager, 2007;Western, 2006), it would not be surprising if these groups differed in their support for allowing criminal record inquiries, particularly at the application stage where such inquiries 11 The BTB state variable is measured as whether the state had implemented a BTB policy at the time of the survey, not at the time of the person's last application. ...
Ban-the-Box (BTB) legislation, which bans employers from asking about criminal history records on the initial job application, is arguably the most prominent policy arising from the prisoner reentry movement. BTB policies assume: 1) most employers ask about criminal records, and 2) inquiries occur at the application stage. However, we lack reliable information about the validity of these assumptions or about public attitudes towards background checks, which limits our understanding of the potential scope of this innovative policy. Using survey data from a national probability sample, we estimate that in the past year, over 31 million U.S. adults were asked about a criminal record on a job application. According to our survey, virtually all of the criminal record inquiries occurred at the application stage, highlighting the potential of BTB. However, we also found that the public is sharply divided on whether to prevent employers from asking on applications, as per BTB.
... If previous studies indicate that religious beliefs and/or activities serve as bulwarks against criminal behavior, it is imperative that offenders find a religious "home," a place where they are accepted. In a study of Missourians, Garland, Wodahl, & Smith (2015) examined attitudes toward reentry programs and measure designed to facilitate successful reentry such as housing assistance. Religious beliefs were among the variables examined. ...
... They found that people with a belief in a less punitive God and who see God as more forgiving than punitive were more supportive of reentry efforts for ex-prisoners. However, Garland et al. (2015) did not examine church attendance or denominational affiliation as part of their study. Braithwaite's (1989) concepts of crime, shame, and reintegration provide a theoretical backdrop to explore the willingness of church goers to accept certain types of criminal offenders within their congregations. ...
Objectives: Using Braithwaite's (1989) notions of crime, shame and reintegration as theoretical underpinning, we identify factors associated with acceptance of a variety of offenders accused or convicted of various criminal behaviors among Christian church goers in a North Carolina county. Methods: Using a convenience sample method, surveys were administered to 365 church goers, with an effort to include a mixture of respondents that reflected the population of the county being sampled, in terms of race, gender, age, education level, and denominational affiliation. The survey included numerous vignettes, identifying crimes ranging in seriousness from underage drinking to murder, and from a variety of offenders including teenagers, young adults, middle aged women and middle aged men. Bivariate and multivariate techniques were employed to analyze the data. Results: Acceptance was greatest for young adult and teenaged offenders for a variety of minor offenses, but also for young men that had been convicted of burglary and released into the community. Respondents were least accepting of sex offenders and people that had stolen money from the church. Race was one of the key variables, with African-Americans being consistently most accepting of almost all categories of offense and offender. Acceptance was also associated with denomination, with Unitarian Universalists being the most accepting, and Roman Catholics being the least accepting. Acceptance was also positively associated with age and amount of formal education. Conclusions: Our results may reinforce Chiricos, Welch and Gertz's (2004) ideas of racial typification of crime, and that crime and the “criminal” label revolve to a great degree around race. Concerns of safety and liability of church members continue to plague church ministers and staff. The church as an agent of reintegration and acceptance of offenders should continue to receive attention from scholars, the public and policy makers. Churches may serve as vehicles for effecting restorative justice programs.AbstractWe explored acceptance of criminal offenders by churchgoers in an eastern North Carolina county. Vignettes were developed as part of a survey used to determine whether denominational affiliation and the background characteristics of respondents would matter when it comes to how accepting church goers would be of these types of offenders. We found some denominational differences; however, race proved to be the greatest predictor of acceptance, with Blacks significantly more likely than Whites to say they would accept offenders into their congregations. Respondents were least likely to accept sex offenders into their congregations. Concepts from reintegrative shaming theory, embedded within the Christian concepts of forgiveness and redemption, can play a role in the successful integration of offenders into local communities.
... Several scholars argue that religious beliefs also shape economic development, as faith-based organizations (FBOs) engage in poverty alleviation, public service provision, and social justice advocacy (McCleary and Barro, 2006;Jong, 2008). Garland and Smith (2017) reinforce this perspective, noting that major world religions-including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism-derive inspiring motivation from divine teachings to support the poor and vulnerable. ...
Abstract
This study examines the link between philanthropy and religion, focusing on Nigeria's Islamic faith-based organisations (IFBOs). Using a qualitative research design, data were sourced from journal articles, Islamic and biblical texts, reports, and online resources, and analysed through a critical literature review (CLR). Four key findings emerged. First, Islam and Judeo-Christianity provide a five-dimensional context for the philanthropy-religion nexus. Second, theological views on philanthropy revolve around voluntary, obligatory, and discretionary commitments. Third, religions bolster philanthropy as a social safety net and a driver of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiding poverty alleviation, education, health, and entrepreneurship. Lastly, IFBOs in Nigeria effectively use Zakat, Sadaqat, and Waqf to address illiteracy, health, water access, hunger, and unemployment. The study concludes with policy recommendations, emphasising the need to strengthen the philanthropy-religion connection for broader impact and improved compliance.
Keywords: Context, Impact, Islamic Faith-Based Organizations, Philanthropy, Religion, Theological Position, SDGs
... 41 So too are those who believe in religious forgiveness. 42 Additional research finds that individuals are less likely to support rehabilitative approaches when crime is increasing or generally high 43 or when they were a victim of or fear crime. 44 Support for rehabilitation also varies with respect to the offender's criminal record, the type of crime, and the extent of harm inflicted on victims. ...
The potential threat posed by returning and repatriated foreign fighters and the upcoming release of homegrown violent extremists from prisons in developed democracies has raised interest in terrorist rehabilitation programs. Few studies, however, systematically examine how the public views such programs. Drawing on research on public attitudes toward prisoner reentry in criminology and social psychological theory, this study offers a series of hypotheses about support for rehabilitation programming for terrorist offenders. These hypotheses are then tested through a survey experiment on a nationally representative sample of 1,021 adult citizens in the United States. The results show that the public is less supportive of postrelease rehabilitation programming for terrorists than other criminal offenders. Support is also lower when an Islamist, rather than a white nationalist, offender is referenced. Support increases when a referenced Islamist is described as a juvenile convicted of a less serious offense. Men, younger individuals, those with some college education, and self-identified liberals are more likely to support terrorist rehabilitation programming. Finally, irrespective of treatment, respondents are most likely to cite evidence of effectiveness as the factor that would increase their support for rehabilitation programming.
... For these reasons, researchers increasingly are exploring public opinion on a variety of nonpunitive policies (Thielo et al. 2016;Sundt et al. 2015), such as justice reinvestment (Wozniak 2019), reforms designed to reduce the visibility and effects of criminal records (Burton et al. 2020a;Denver et al. 2018;Johnston and Wozniak 2020;Lageson et al. 2019;Lehmann et al. 2020), and programs intended to assist returning citizens during reentry (Garland et al. 2017;Ouellette et al. 2017). A key theoretical insight from this literature has been that when the focus moves away from sentencing, to crime prevention or "second chance," post-punishment policies, the public becomes more utilitarian (Lehmann et al. 2020). ...
Objectives. After years of decreasing public punitiveness and declining crime rates, politicians are seeking evidence-based crime policies to reduce mass incarceration without increasing crime. One such policy that has been implemented in several U.S. cities is the Operation Peacemaker Fellowship (OPF), which incentivizes conformity and program participation by providing monetary stipends to individuals at risk of violent offending, thereby simultaneously reducing violence and incarceration. Yet, there is no evidence about public support for such policies.
Methods. Using a nationally representative survey experiment, we examine public support for violence prevention stipends. We employ a referendum-style, contingent valuation design to measure the impact of tax increases versus tax savings on public opinion, and we randomize message framing that emphasizes the stipend program’s risky versus protective features.
Results. Both tax changes and risk framing matter. The public is willing to vote for stipends when they reduce taxes and are framed as a method to save lives. Most Republicans oppose stipends under all conditions.
Conclusions. Reformers can increase public support for effective, non-punitive policies that target violent offenders by emphasizing both their economic and social benefits. However, such policies are likely to face consistent opposition from certain portions of the public.
... There are a number of other possible reasons for the gender gap in parole support found in this study. Research has highlighted the importance of emotions like empathy and forgiveness in shaping people's views toward offenders and their policy preferences on prisoner reentry (Garland, Wodahl, & Smith, 2015;Gault & Sabini, 2000). Thus, future research should also explore whether men and women take different views on parole because they experience different emotions when thinking about this issue. ...
Research exploring gender differences in public attitudes toward parole is limited, despite a large body of literature showing that men and women have diverging views on other criminal justice issues, including capital punishment and offender rehabilitation and treatment. Drawing on an Australian national survey of community views on parole, the current study examines whether men and women differ in their support for the release of prisoners on parole. The results indicate that gender does predict parole attitudes, with Australian women significantly more likely to hold nonsupportive views on parole than Australian men. The results also reveal that women are more likely to take a neutral position toward parole, rather than supporting it. Together, these findings indicate there may be something about being a woman in Australia that prevents one from being willing to support the early release of prisoners. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.
... et al. (2007: 44,45) discern three scales for punitivity with seven, three, and six indicator variables respectively. Their respective α are: 0.83 for the component Bthe advocacy of the severity of punishment, as a deterrent^, 0.92 for the component Bendorsement of capital punishment^, and 0.68 for the component Bendorsement of penal leniency^and Balternatives to imprisonment^.Johnson (2009: 56, 57) uses four questions: Bmeasuring support for three strikes law, stricter parole, trying juveniles in adult courts, and harsher penalties for violent offenders^.Butter et al. 2013, andGarland et al. 2015 also use Cronbach's alpha to assess internal validity of survey scales. 5 Indicator reliability of many variables is below 0.5 and the proportion of variance explained is 29% (results not shown in tables). ...
This article investigates different types of fear of crime as predictors for punitive attitudes. Using data from a Germany-wide representative survey (n = 1272) it examines the reliability and validity of survey instruments through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to explain variations in the level of respondents’ punitive attitudes. The results show that different emotional and cognitive responses to crime have a distinctive effect on the formation of punitive attitudes. These effects vary significantly depending on socio-demographic factors and assumed purposes of punishment. A crucial observation of the study is that men’s fear of crime works in a different way in the formation of punitive attitudes than women’s fear of crime. The perceived locus of control for the crime threat is a possible explanation for this difference.
The retention of capital punishment in China has long garnered public support. In addition to the frequently cited cultural and societal factors (such as cultural particularity and the overall number of crimes), previous research has yet to address whether and how the notion of human rights shapes the attitudes of Chinese citizens towards the death penalty. Through a random sample survey at an influential university of political science and law in China, this study indicates that the support of future political and legal elites for the death penalty decreases when alternatives are presented. It is also shown that the human rights index is a vital factor influencing college students’ attitudes towards capital punishment, which manifests the achievements of human rights education and death penalty reform in China. The mediation effect analysis further demonstrates that students from urban areas are more apt to oppose the abolition of the death penalty due to a lower identification with human rights. Based on these empirical findings, this study reflects on the debate between penal populism and penal elitism. Research and policy implications are also discussed.
Against the background of the amended Juvenile Act of 2021, this study examined the determinants of the public acceptance of specified juveniles (aged 18 and 19) whose names were reported. We established a model consisting of the following four variables, which were predicted to be related to the acceptance of such specified juveniles: approval of the negative consequences of real-name reporting, belief in a just world, emphasis on forgiveness, and belief in redeemability. This model was examined using the conditions of forcible sexual intercourse and property destruction. Analysis of data obtained from 282 respondents indicated that for property destruction, belief in redeemability had a positive effect on the acceptance of such specified juveniles. In addition, for both forcible sexual intercourse and property destruction, the data relating to emphasis on forgiveness indicated that the respondents did not approve of the negative consequences of real-name reporting for these specified juveniles. These findings suggest that belief in redeemability and emphasis on forgiveness may promote positive attitudes toward specified juveniles whose names have been reported.
Public attitudes toward people who are incarcerated have been studied; however, there is a paucity of information regarding how the public views pregnant women who are incarcerated. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative assessment investigating attitudes toward pregnant women who are incarcerated and prison conditions at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Participants included 507 students, staff, and faculty who were asked to specifically consider pregnant women who are incarcerated while completing the survey. We found that women, younger people, non-religious or non-Christian individuals, and those with higher levels of formal education perceived pregnant women who are incarcerated more positively and favored less punitive prison conditions. In addition, closer proximity to people who are incarcerated was associated with more positive attitudes toward pregnant women who are incarcerated but was not related to views on prison conditions. Qualitatively, participants reported that considering pregnant women who are incarcerated led them to respond with the same or less negativity than if they had been asked to consider people who are incarcerated as a whole, citing factors such as gender stereotypes and concern for the child. These results can be used as a foundation to understand how students, faculty, and staff at a large Midwestern university perceive pregnant women who are incarcerated and to inform education and policy efforts.
This study examines the relationship between religion and attitudes toward punishment. Numerous studies show that these factors are related, but the relationship is complex. Using data from a 2009 telephone survey of 1,207 U.S. adults, we examine how religiosity affects beliefs about punishment for adults and juveniles. Specifically, this study assesses respondents’ views about the purposes of punishment (i.e., deterrence, concern for victims, and rehabilitation), as well as their support for different punishments for juveniles (i.e., incarceration and rehabilitation). Our findings suggest that religiosity matters in predicting an individual’s punishment philosophy but that the relationship between religiosity and punitiveness is neither linear nor simple. Additionally, the findings presented here suggest that religiosity matters in predicting attitudes toward punishing juveniles but somewhat differently than it matters for predicting adult punishment philosophies. Taken together, the results highlight the importance of considering both religious beliefs and religious behaviors on punishment attitudes toward adults and juveniles. Implications for future research and policy are also discussed.
A number of studies in the United States examine the impact of religiosity on attitudes towards various types of criminal sanctioning. Research seems to indicate that more conservative denominations and faiths have a more punitive preference for criminal sanctions. Previous studies have also examined these attitudes between criminal justice and non-criminal justice students. While this area of inquiry has drawn attention in the United States, only scant attention has been paid to this phenomenon in other countries. To the best of our knowledge, no study has addressed this issue in China and our research seeks to serve as a foundation for examining this topic in that country. Using data collected from students attending universities in China, we examine the relationship between respondents’ religiosity and their punitive attitudes. We also compare the punitive attitudes between law and non-law majors. Findings indicate that students with higher levels of religious behaviour were less likely to support the death penalty. In addition, law majors were found to be less likely to endorse severe sentences. Suggestions for future research are discussed.
Although Muslims comprise 5.3% of the NSW population, they account for 9.3% of prisoners in correctional centres. The high rate of Muslim representation in the prison population is the result of long-term neglect of the needs of second and third generation of Muslims by the wider Muslim community and by governments. This article first argues the high rate of the Muslim population in the prisons is not a failure of Muslim community alone, but is a product of a combination of individual, familial and societal failures due to various factors. These factors are multidimensional and need to be identified accurately to fashion appropriate responses. This article proposes a strategy for reintegration of Muslim parolees into society and reducing recidivism in prisons based on the experiences from a parolees mentoring program, which was conducted in 2016 by a community based institution, Islamic Science and Research Academy of Australia (ISRA), in collaboration with Bankstown Community Corrections Centre (a department of NSW Corrective Services). The findings show a mutual collaboration between NSW Corrective Services and faith-based organisations can assist in reducing recidivism in Muslim parolees.
We report the results of a large scale Australian survey of public attitudes to offender reintegration. A representative sample of 1215 respondents gave their views about the possibility that offenders could make a good life for themselves after having committed crime. Views expressed were significantly positive with around four out of five respondents indicating they believed reintegration was possible and should be attempted. On the basis of the responses an overall score was calculated for each respondent. Analysis of the data suggested that three factors contributed to the overall score. We named these: Human capital, Possibility of change and Agency and the rationale for these is discussed. Some demographic factors (age, gender, presence of children in the household and highest level of schooling) were significantly related to scores in one of the components. Respondents also reported whether they, or someone close to them, had been a victim of crime or had been arrested, and whether they had worked in the field of law enforcement or the field of human services. Inclusion in these categories was found to be significantly related to certain components of the overall score. These findings are discussed in the light of related surveys in other jurisdictions and we invite other researchers to use the scale and suggest improvements.
This article first makes the case that optimism in the reform potential of criminal offenders has recently increased among American policymakers, as evidenced by the bipartisan passage of the Second Chance Act of 2007, which encourages prisoner reentry and sets ambitious targets for recidivism reduction. It then sets this apparent renewal of ‘penal optimism’ in historical context by drawing on American evangelical Protestant traditions and examining how these affect contemporary perceptions of the redeemability of criminal offenders. One aim is to acquaint criminologists with the discourse of evangelical Protestantism, a significant and driving force in contemporary penal reform efforts – particularly in the realm of prisoner reentry – by outlining key religious concepts and their implications for penal discourse and policy.
Few public policy issues have inflamed passions as consistently and as strongly as the debate over capital punishment. Religious denominations have been deeply involved on both sides of the issue, drawing both on teachings and traditions of justice and on those that emphasize the dignity of human life. Scholarly researchers have investigated the role that religious beliefs play in shaping sentiments toward crime control policies, with a particular focus on the relationship between belonging to a Christian fundamentalist denomination and support for the death penalty. Researchers have reasoned that Christian fundamentalists should be more likely to support capital punishment than other more moderate denominations because they hold conservative religious beliefs that justify the use of the death penalty. Using 1998 data from the General Social Survey, the authors initially show that contrary to common views, Christian fundamentalist affiliation is unrelated to support for capital punishment. Subsequent analyses reveal, however, that this null relationship is not straightforward but complex: fundamentalists embrace certain religious beliefs and involvement that both increase and decrease punitiveness. The study thus suggests that understanding the impact of religion on crime control attitudes potentially requires disentangling countervailing effects of different features of religiosity.
Prior research has established that the characteristics of “places” are an important aspect of public safety and local quality of life. Growth in the rates of incarceration since 1973, combined with social disparity in the experience of imprisonment among certain groups, has meant that some communities experience concentrated levels of incarceration. This article examines the spatial impact of incarceration and explores the problems associated with removing and returning offenders to communities that suffer from high rates of incarceration. The study analyzes data from a series of individual and group interviews designed to reveal the experiences and perspectives of a sample of 39 Tallahassee, Florida, residents (including ex-offenders) who live in two high-incarceration neighborhoods. The authors then provide a series of policy recommendations to offset some of the unintended consequences of incarceration. The article concludes with research priorities for further study.
Abortion and the death penalty are two of the most contentious issues in American public life. Previous scholarship has documented religious variations in attitudes toward each of these hotly contested issues. However, scant research has explored how religious factors affect opposition to both abortion and capital punishment, two key elements of a consistent life ethic. This study offers a partial test of religious support for the consistent life ethic by examining the extent to which the nature and quality of the rehtionship between God and the religious believer fosters opposition to both abortion and capital punishment. Using data from the 2004 General Social Survey, we find that a close relationship with a loving God predicts opposition to both abortion and the death penalty net of other religious factors and covariates. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and delineating promising directions for future research.
Religion has long been recognized as an underlying aspect of correctional policies. Researchers, however, have only recently begun to move beyond considerations of how fundamentalist Christian affiliations might shape preferences for punitive correctional policies. The present study broadens the extant research by examining multiple aspects of religious beliefs and how they affect support for capital punishment and harsher local courts. Analyses of General Social Survey data show that religion has divergent effects. Beyond a mere fundamentalist or conservative religious view, those who have a rigid and moralistic approach to religion and who imagine God as a dispassionate, powerful figure who dispenses justice are more likely to harbor punitive sentiments toward offenders. In contrast, those who have a gracious or loving image of God and who are compassionate toward others—that is, those who take seriously the admonition to “turn the other cheek”—are less supportive of “get tough” policies. In the end, not only is religion a multi‐dimensional phenomenon but also its features likely coalesce to divide believers into opposite camps—with one set of attributes fostering harsh sentiments toward offenders and another set of attributes tempering punitiveness and justifying interventions aimed at helping the criminally wayward.
Ever since Stouffer (1955) began to measure political tolerance a half century ago, multiple studies have shown that church
attendance and denominational affiliation play a significant role in influencing whether individuals want to extend civil
liberties to fringe groups. However, there is little theoretical understanding of why religion should affect an individual's
unwillingness to grant free expression to minority opinions. Drawing upon the theoretical innovations of Greeley (1995) we
argue that the key to understanding when religion negatively affects political tolerance is the individual's conception of
God. Using data from the General Social Survey we find that a wrathful image of God is significantly related to the denial
of civil liberties to unpopular groups, even controlling for attendance, affiliation and view of the Bible. These findings
indicate that religious faith and civil liberties are in tension mainly when believers think that God actively punishes sinners.
The last decades of the twentieth century witnessed a rapid buildup of prison populations followed by rapid increases in the numbers of individuals being released back to communities. Entering the twenty-first century, about 1,700 adults were leaving state and federal prisons each day. This article summarizes recent research on prisoner reentry and concludes that while progress has been made in increasing service delivery and improving intermediate outcomes, attaining substantial declines in recidivism may be more difficult than previously imagined.
Relatively little research has examined the outcomes (either program completion or recidivism) of community service (CS) sentences among adult offenders in the United States, despite the fact that this form of alternative sanction has been employed in the United States for nearly 40 years. What little research exists, primarily from Europe, suggests that community service may not yield significant reductions in recidivism. Increased use of community service in this country is suggested to have several potential benefits including the alleviation of jail crowding, reduction of correctional costs, as well as provision of credible intermediate punishment. Reductions in crowding and associated costs depend, however, on CS being utilized with incarceration-bound offenders and also that these offenders be managed under this community-based sanction without risk to public safety. This study finds that several characteristics indicative of more “serious” offenders (e.g., criminal history and other personal characteristics) are related to lower likelihood of program completion. Initial evidence also suggests that among those receiving this type of sentence, program completion reduces recidivism risk, controlling for the underlying propensity to complete the sentence. Limitations of the design and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
Some have argued that moralistic considerations trump other factors in determining attitudes toward criminal punishment. Consequently, recent research has examined how views of God influence sentiments regarding criminal punishment. Using the Baylor Religion Survey (BRS) 2005, we find that (a) angry and judgmental images of God are significant predictors of punitive attitudes regarding criminal punishment and the death penalty and (b) images of God as loving and engaged in the world are not consistently significant predictors of attitudes toward criminal punishment, once measures of God’s perceived anger and judgment are considered.
Statistics indicate that racial/ethnic minorities, particularly black and Hispanic males, face a disproportionately high risk of incarceration in the United States. We argue that this is the most serious issue facing contemporary criminal justice policymakers. This determination is made by assessing the negative impact that incarceration can have on individuals, their communities, and the integration of minorities into the nation's larger social, economic, and political landscape. Our paper also reviews literature that uses Alfred Blumstein's method of calculating the amount of racial disproportionality in prisons that is explained by arrest rates. This review identifies a number of themes in the research. Two key themes are that a national figure of explained racial disparity in imprisonment is not generalizable to the states and that drug offenses consistently have one of the lowest amounts of disproportionality explained by arrest. The paper concludes by discussing several new opportunities to use Blumstein's method in the study of race and justice. A couple of these opportunities include using the Blumstein method to monitor locations of potential discrimination across the country and guide research on judicial discrimination in prison sentencing.
Several studies have sought to link punitive public attitudes to attribution style and/or lay theories of crime. This research
finds that those who believe criminal acts are the result of freely chosen and willful behavior are more likely to be punitive
than those who feel crime is the result of external circumstances and constraints. These analyses focus on only one dimension
of attributions: locus of control (internal/external). In this analysis, we include a second dimension, thought to be a better
predictor of attitudes in social psychological research: stability/instability. In addition to measuring lay theories of crime
causation, we also test for “belief in redeemability” (or beliefs about the ability of deviants to change their ways). Our
hypothesis is that this other dimension of personal attributions (stability/instability) may be as critical in explaining
support for highly punitive criminal justice policies as beliefs about criminal responsibility. We find evidence supportive
of this model in an analysis of data from postal survey of residents of six areas in England.
Unlike political or economic institutions, social movements have an elusive power, but one that is no less real. From the French and American revolutions through the democratic and workers' movements of the nineteenth century to the totalitarian movements of today, movements exercise a fleeting but powerful influence on politics and society. This study surveys the history of the social movement, puts forward a theory of collective action to explain its surges and declines, and offers an interpretation of the power of movement that emphasises its effects on personal lives, policy reforms and political culture. While covering cultural, organisational and personal sources of movements' power, the book emphasises the rise and fall of social movements as part of political struggle and as the outcome of changes in political opportunity structure.
America's prison-based system of punishment has not always enjoyed the widespread political and moral legitimacy it has today. In this groundbreaking reinterpretation of penal history, Rebecca McLennan covers the periods of deep instability, popular protest, and political crisis that characterized early American prisons. She details the debates surrounding prison reform, including the limits of state power, the influence of market forces, the role of unfree labor, and the 'just deserts' of wrongdoers. McLennan also explores the system that existed between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, where private companies relied on prisoners for labor. Finally, she discusses the rehabilitation model that has primarily characterized the penal system in the twentieth century. Unearthing fresh evidence from prison and state archives, McLennan shows how, in each of three distinct periods of crisis, widespread dissent culminated in the dismantling of old systems of imprisonment.
More than the citizens of most countries, Americans are either religious or in jail--or both. But what does it mean when imprisonment and evangelization actually go hand in hand, or at least appear to? What do "faith-based" prison programs mean for the constitutional separation of church and state, particularly when prisoners who participate get special privileges? In Prison Religion, law and religion scholar Winnifred Fallers Sullivan takes up these and other important questions through a close examination of a 2005 lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a faith-based residential rehabilitation program in an Iowa state prison. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries, a trial in which Sullivan served as an expert witness, centered on the constitutionality of allowing religious organizations to operate programs in state-run facilities. Using the trial as a case study, Sullivan argues that separation of church and state is no longer possible. Religious authority has shifted from institutions to individuals, making it difficult to define religion, let alone disentangle it from the state. Prison Religion casts new light on church-state law, the debate over government-funded faith-based programs, and the predicament of prisoners who have precious little choice about what kind of rehabilitation they receive, if they are offered any at all.
Reaffirming Rehabilitation, 2nd Edition, brings fresh insights to one of the core works of criminal justice literature. This groundbreaking work analyzes the rehabilitative ideal within the American correctional system and discusses its relationship to and conflict with political ideologies. Many researchers and policymakers rejected the value of rehabilitation after Robert Martinson's proclamation that "nothing works." Cullen and Gilbert's book helped stem the tide of negativism that engulfed the U.S. correctional system in the years that followed the popularization of the "nothing works" doctrine. Now Cullen traces the social impact on U.S. corrections policy. This new edition is appropriate as a textbook in corrections courses and as recommended reading in related courses. It also serves as a resource for researchers and policymakers working in the field of corrections.
IntroductionSocial Movements and the Distribution and Redistribution of ResourcesTypology of Social Movement ResourcesKey Resource AttributesMechanisms of Access and Source ConstraintsKey Resource Mobilization ProcessesConclusion
Few topics have been discussed more extensively or feverishly within correctional academic and professional circles in the past few decades than prisoner reentry. Although program and policy evaluations have been conducted, a lack of public support for prisoner reentry initiatives could undermine the sustainability of prisoner reentry as a large-scale movement. Interestingly, no multivariate, explanatory analyses of the correlates of support for prisoner reentry policies could be found in the literature. This omission is due in part to the absence of clear psychometric measures to assess support. The current study examines the data obtained from a sample of residents in a Midwestern state to determine the dimensionality of support for prisoner reentry interventions using both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Specifically, our expectation is that the following three-factor structure will be identified: (a) support for transitional programs aimed at building skills and knowledge to handle the obstacles of the prison-to-community transitional process, (b) support for post-release transitional housing units, and (c) opposition to denying offenders housing opportunities. Our results support a three-factor model. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.
© The Author(s) 2015.
This insightful new conceptualization of American political history demonstrates that--despite the clear separation of church and state--religion lies at the heart of American politics. From the Puritan founding to the present day, the American story is a moral epic, James Morone says, and while moral fervor has inspired the dream of social justice it has also ignited our fiercest social conflicts. From the colonial era to the present day, Americans embraced a Providential mission, tangled with devils, and aspired to save the world. Moral fervor ignited our fiercest social conflicts--but it also moved dreamers to remake the nation in the name of social justice. Moral crusades inspired abolition, woman suffrage, and civil rights, even as they led Americans to hang witches, enslave Africans, and ban liquor. Today these moral arguments continue, influencing the debate over everything from abortion to foreign policy. Written with passion and deep insight, Hellfire Nation tells the story of a brawling, raucous, religious people. Morone shows how fears of sin and dreams of virtue defined the shape of the nation.
Of those polled, 74% are somewhat or very con-cerned about the problem of crime in their commu-nities, and 79% are concerned or fearful about the annual release of 700,000 prisoners. By almost an 8 to 1 margin (87% to 11%), the US voting public is in favor of rehabilitative services for prisoners as opposed to a punishment-only system. Of those polled, 70% favored services both during incarceration and after release from prison. Only 14% of those polled thought that people com-ing out of prison were less likely to commit new crimes than they were before imprisonment. Over 50% thought the likelihood was at least the same, while 31% thought that the likelihood of new crime was greater after prison than before. By strong majorities, US voters feel that a lack of life skills, the experience of being in prison, and ob-stacles to reentry are major factors in the rearrest of prisoners after release. Few thought that criminality is inherent. • • • • By an overwhelming majority (82%), likely voters felt that a lack of job training was a very signifi cant bar-rier to released prisoners avoiding subsequent crime. They also thought that medical care, the availability of public housing, and student loans are important (86%, 84%, and 83% respectively). By huge margins, those polled felt that job training, drug treatment, mental health services, family sup-port, mentoring, and housing were all very impor-tant services that should be offered to prisoners. Less than 10% of those polled (only 2% in the case of job training) thought that these services were unimportant.
Juvenile blended sentencing statutes enable juvenile courts to impose sanctions in the adult correctional system without the youth being processed by adult courts. The current study examines levels of public support for juvenile courts having the option to consider applying this new blended sentencing policy, and it analyzes the impact of various predictor variables, such as the perceived nature of juveniles and expected consequences of adult-level sanctions, on supportiveness. In 2009, a survey was mailed to a random sample of 1,000 Missouri residents, and through a series of follow ups, a 51% response rate was achieved. In general, respondents favored juvenile courts possessing the option to use juvenile blended sentencing. OLS regression analyses determined that the expected consequences of adult sanctions on youths were the strongest predictors of support. Attitudes about the respectfulness of youth and perceived importance of incapacitation in responding to youth crime also influenced attitudes toward the blended policy. Future directions for research along with policy and legal implications are discussed.
The dramatic growth in the incarceration rate since the mid-1970s has unintentionally resulted in massive numbers of people being released from prison each year. Consequently, prisoner reentry initiatives are receiving greater attention than ever before. At this point few studies have looked at public support for reentry initiatives, and the existing ones have taken a rather general and atheoretical approach. The current study explores public opinion toward a wide range of reentry policies and practices through a value conflict framework. Results from a randomly selected, statewide sample in Missouri indicate that people take into account such values as social welfare, retribution, and self-interest when assessing their support for reentry measures. As reentry initiatives may struggle to attain legitimacy and resources without public support, a number of policy implications are discussed. These implications include informing the public of the need for servicing those with prior prison terms and communicating the value of housing assistance during reentry.
This paper discusses the reasons for inmate religious involvement in the correctional environment. Participant observation and seventy individual interviews were employed to gather the ethnographic data in two large maximum-security prisons located in the northeast United States. Content analysis and constant comparison methods were used to develop analytic categories and to compare results across research sites and between denominational groups. It was revealed that inmates practice religion for a variety of reasons depending on the sincerity of their intentions. The results introduce insight into why inmates practice religion in prison, provide valuable information for those who administer religious programs, and are shown to be theoretically linked with findings of prior research conducted in the correctional environment.
Inmates have long been considered one of the most politically disenfranchised groups in the United States. Not surprisingly, the well-being of the incarcerated has rarely been considered a high priority for federal policymakers. The passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), however, reveals that reform through traditional policy making channels is attainable. The passage of PREA has provided reformers with more than optimism. It provides a roadmap for future efforts to transform prison conditions through legislative intervention. This manuscript explores the lessons learned from PREA’s success by identifying the traditional barriers to federal legislative prison reform and examining how PREA was able to navigate these obstacles and secure passage without a single “no” vote in the U.S. Congress. Special attention is given to the important role of evangelicals in the passage of this legislation.
The 1990s saw concerted legislative efforts to increase the mechanisms through which juveniles could be transferred to the adult court. Beginning research exists on how the public feels about transferring youths out of the juvenile justice system, but it is somewhat dated and does little to illuminate the reasons people support transfer. Using a statewide sample and factorial survey design, this study assesses how public views are related to multiple factors, including offense and offender characteristics, views on the appropriate aims of juvenile sentencing, perceptions of juvenile maturity, and expectations about the results of transferring juvenile cases to the adult criminal justice system. Our findings suggest that people want transfer used sparingly and selectively and that support is greatest when they believe that the adult system can provide effective rehabilitation as well as punishment. Implications are discussed.
This article considers the impact of public opinion on public policy, asking: (1) how much impact it has; (2) how much the impact increases as the salience of issues increases; (3) to what extent the impact of public opinion may be negated by interest groups, social movement organizations, political parties, and elites; (4) whether responsiveness of governments to public opinion has changed over time; and (5) the extent to which our conclusions can be generalized. The source of data is publications published in major journals and included in major literature reviews, systematically coded to record the impact of public opinion on policy. The major findings include: the impact of public opinion is substantial; salience enhances the impact of public opinion; the impact of opinion remains strong even when the activities of political organizations and elites are taken into account; responsiveness appears not to have changed significantly over time; and the extent to which the conclusions can be generalized is limited. Gaps in our knowledge made apparent by the review are addressed in proposals for an agenda for future research.
During the past decade, there has been a renewed interest in prisoner reentry. This is due to a change in many of the factors surrounding the release of prisoners and their reentry to the community. These changes include a modification of sentencing from the use of parole to determinate release with fewer ex-offenders having supervision in the community, an increased emphasis on surveillance rather than assistance for those under supervision, less community stability and availability of community social service support, and dramatically larger numbers returning to the community. More releasees are being violated and returned to the community than ever before. Therefore, it is important to identify prisoner reentry programs that work. We define reentry, categorize reentry programs, and use the Maryland Scale of Scientific Method to determine the effectiveness of program categories. We conclude that many such categories are effective in aiding reentry and reducing recidivism.
Christopher Adamson, an historical sociologist, has taught at Hofstra University and York University.
1. Adam J. Hirsch, The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), xii.
2. David J. Rothman, The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic (Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1971), 84.
3. Michael Meranze, Laboratories of Virtue: Punishment, Revolution, and Authority in Philadelphia, 1760-1835 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996).
4. Negley K. Teeters, They Were in Prison (Chicago: John C. Winston Co., 1937); The Cradle of the Penitentiary: The Walnut Street Jail at Philadelphia, 1773-1835 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Prison Society, 1955); Negley K. Teeters and John D. Shearer, The Prison at Philadelphia, Cherry Hill (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957); Harry E. Barnes, The Evolution of Penology in Pennsylvania (1927. Reprint. Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1968); A History of the Penal, Reformatory, and Correctional Institutions of the State of New Jersey (1918. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1974); Orlando F. Lewis, The Development of American Prisons and Prison Customs, 1776-1845 (1922. Reprint. Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1967); Blake McKelvey, American Prisons: A History of Good Intentions (1936. Reprint. Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1977). Norman Johnston (with Kenneth Finkel and Jeffrey A. Cohen), Eastern State Penitentiary: Crucible of Good Intentions (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1994).
5. For a definition of evangelicalism, see Mark A. Noll, David W. Bebbington, and George A. Rawlyk, eds., Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles, and Beyond, 1700-1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 6. On the tension between the evangelical emphasis on the primacy of scripture and the Quaker emphasis on the primacy of the Inward Light, see H. Larry Ingle, Quakers in Conflict: The Hicksite Reformation (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1986).
6. Sydney V. James, A People Among Peoples: Quaker Benevolence in Eighteenth-Century America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963); Jack D. Marietta, The Reformation of American Quakerism, 1748-1783 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984).
7. Arthur J. Mekeel, The Quakers and the American Revolution (York, Eng: Sessions Book Trust, 1996), 343-61. David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), 213-54. Jean R. Soderlund, Quakers & Slavery: A Divided Spirit (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985); Gary B. Nash and Jean R. Soderlund, Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and its Aftermath (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
8. Francis R. Taylor, Life of William Savery of Philadelphia, 1750-1804 (New York: Macmillan, 1925), 32.
9. Richard Bauman, For the Reputation of Truth: Politics, Religion, and Conflict among the Pennsylvania Quakers, 1750-1800 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971), 237.
10. Rufus M. Jones, "Nicolas Waln, 1742-1813," DAB 10:386.
11. On the crumbling of doctrinal commitments in the face of evangelical activism, see Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).
12. Hicksite Quakers feared that involvement with non-Quaker evangelicals would corrode the purity of Quaker spirituality. They were outnumbered by Orthodox Quakers ten to one in Philadelphia's prison society. Bruce Dorsey, "Friends Becoming Enemies: Philadelphia Benevolence and the Neglected Era of American Quaker History," Journal of the Early Republic 18 (Fall 1998), 395-428, especially 416. There were many exclusively Quaker charities. See Margaret M. Haviland, "Beyond Women's Sphere: Young Quaker Women and the Veil of Charity in Philadelphia, 1790-1810," The William and Mary Quarterly 51 (July 1994), 435-6. Friends Asylum, for example, was built to serve Quaker patients. Charles L. Cherry, A Quiet Haven: Quakers, Moral Treatment, and Asylum Reform (Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1989), 138, 157-8.
13. In the first half of the eighteenth century, the Quaker Party had derived support from all of Pennsylvania's religious groups. Alan Tully, "Quaker Party and Proprietary Policies: The Dynamics of Politics in Pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania, 1730-1775," 75-105 in Bruce C. Daniels, ed., Power and Status: Officeholding in Colonial America (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1986), 82.
14. Lois Banner aptly described the benevolent...
Preface to this edition, by Steven Lukes Introduction to the 1984 edition, by Lewis Coser Introduction to this edition, by Steven Lukes Durkheim's Life and Work: Timeline 1858-1917 Suggestions for Further Reading Original Translator's Note The Division of Labour in Society by Emile Durkheim Preface to the First Edition (1893) Preface to the Second Edition (1902) Introduction PART I: THE FUNCTION OF THE DIVISION OF LABOUR 1. The Method of Determining This Function 2. Mechanical Solidarity, or Solidarity by Similarities 3. Solidarity Arising from the Division of Labour, or Organic Solidarity 4. Another Proof of the Preceding Theory 5. The Increasing Preponderance of Organic: Solidarity and its Consequences 6. The Increasing Preponderance of Organic: Solidarity and its Consequences (cont.) 7. Organic Solidarity and Contractual Solidarity PART II: THE CAUSES AND CONDITIONS 8. The Progress of the Division of Labour and of Happiness 9. The Causes 10. Secondary Factors 11. Secondary Factors (cont.) 12. Consequences of the Foregoing PART III: THE ABNORMAL FORMS 13. The Anomic Division of Labour 14. The Forced Division of Labour 15. Another Abnormal Form Conclusion Original Annotated Table of Contents
Using a randomized experimental design, this study evaluated the effectiveness of the Minnesota Comprehensive Offender Reentry Plan (MCORP), an offender reentry pilot project implemented in 2008. In an effort to reduce recidivism, MCORP attempted to increase offender access to community services and programming by producing greater case management collaboration between caseworkers in prison and supervision agents in the community. The results showed that MCORP significantly improved employment rates, decreased homelessness, broadened offenders’ systems of social support, and increased the extent to which offenders participated in community support programming (mentoring, restorative justice services, and faith‐based programming). The findings further revealed that MCORP significantly reduced all three types of reoffending (rearrest, reconviction, and new offense reincarcerations) but did not have a significant impact on supervision revocations for technical violations. The evidence suggests that MCORP was effective in decreasing reoffending largely because it increased the extent to which offenders were employed, involved in community support programming, and able to develop systems of social support.
A widespread public preference for harsher sentencing (punitiveness) has been documented in a range of national and international studies. The present study examines the relative predictive power of a set of factors most commonly linked with punitiveness. This study is based on the responses given in the largest Australian survey to date of public attitudes to punishment (N = 6005). A combined hierarchical multiple regression model comprising demographic variables, media usage variables, and crime salience variables accounted for a significant 30% of variance in scores for punitiveness. The three variables that emerged as the strongest predictors of punitive attitudes were: perceptions of crime levels; education; and reliance on tabloid/commercial media for news and information. The results have direct implications for how we understand the persistent public preference for punishment and what might be required to ameliorate or respond to that preference.
Spurred by large increases in prison populations and other recent sentencing and correctional trends, the federal government has supported the development and implementation of Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiatives (SVORI) nationwide. While existing research demonstrates the effectiveness of the separate components of these programs (e.g., matching services to inmate needs, combining community supervision and rehabilitative services), few if any evaluations of the effectiveness of these new coordinated reentry interventions have yet been published. The current study examines the implementation and effectiveness of a small SVORI program in the upper-Midwest, comparing inmates receiving enhanced reentry services to a sample of similar prisoners receiving only traditional prison/parole services. Results reveal that the reentry program successfully reached its target population of serious and violent offenders, provided more referrals to community-based services, and increased drug testing frequency during parole. Reentry participants were also less likely to test positive for drug use while on parole, had similar parole revocation rates and a 60% lower likelihood of post-parole rearrest relative to the comparison sample. Limitations of the study, as well as implication for reentry programming and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although research typically has failed to establish a relationship between religious affiliation and correctional attitudes, recent assessments have revealed that fundamentalist Christians tend to be more punitive than are nonfundamentalists. These studies have advanced our understanding considerably, but their conceptualization of religion and correctional attitudes has been limited. Using a statewide survey, the present study demonstrates that compassionate as well as fundamentalist aspects of religious beliefs are related to public correctional preferences. Further, our results reveal that religion influences support for rehabilitation as well as punitiveness. These findings suggest the need for scholars to think more broadly about the role of religion in criminology.
Since Hirschi and Stark's (1969) surprising failure to find religious (“hellfire”) effects on delinquency, subsequent research has generally revealed an inverse relationship between religiosity and various forms of deviance, delinquency, and crime. The complexity of the relationship and conditions under which it holds, however, continue to be debated. 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 attempts to resolve these issues by testing the religion-crime relationship in models with a comprehensive crime measure and three separate dimensions of religiosity. We also control for secular constraints, religious networks, and social ecology. We found that, among our religiosity measures, participation in religious activities was a persistent and noncontingent inhibiter of adult crime.
This study used a unique data set that combines information on parolees in the city of Sacramento, CA, over the 2003–2006 time period with information on monthly crime rates in Sacramento census tracts over this same period, providing us a fine-grained temporal and geographical view of the relationship between the change in parolees in a census tract and the change in the crime rate. We find that an increase in the number of tract parolees in a month results in an increase in the crime rate. We find that more violent parolees have a particularly strong effect on murder and burglary rates. We find that the social capital of the neighborhood can moderate the effect of parolees on crime rates: Neighborhoods with greater residential stability dampen the effect of parolees on robbery rates, whereas neighborhoods with greater numbers of voluntary organizations dampen the effect of parolees on burglary and aggravated assault rates. Furthermore, this protective effect of voluntary organizations seems strongest for those organizations that provide services for youth. We show that the effect of single-parent households in a neighborhood is moderated by the return of parolees, which suggests that these reunited families may increase the social control ability of the neighborhood.
Much research shows that politicians represent public preferences in public policy. Although we know that there is representation, we do not understand the nature of the relationship in different policy areas. We do not know whether and to what extent representation varies across domains. Even where we find representation, we do not know what policy makers actually represent. This article explicitly addresses these issues, focusing on a set of nine spending domains in the United States. At the heart of the article is a simple conjecture: representation varies across domains, and the pattern is symmetrical to the pattern of public responsiveness to budgetary policy itself. Analysis of the relationships between opinion and policy over time in the different spending domains supports the conjecture. The patterns fit quite nicely with what we know about the influence of different issues on voting behavior in American national elections. Based on this analysis, then, it appears that politicians’ responsiveness to public preferences reflects the public importance of different policy domains.
This paper assesses whether support for harsh punitive policies toward crime is related to the racial typification of crime for a national random sample of households (N=885), surveyed in 2002. Results from OLS regression show that the racial typification of crime is a significant predictor of punitiveness, independent of the influence of racial prejudice, conservatism, crime salience, southern residence and other factors. This relationship is shown to be concentrated among whites who are either less prejudiced, not southern, conservative and for whom crime salience is low. The results broaden our understanding of the links between racial threat and social control, beyond those typically associated with racial composition of place. They also resonate important themes in what some have termed modern racism and what others have described as the politics of exclusion.
Does public policy respond to public opinion? Previous research suggests dynamic representation occurs in the aggregate. Yet,
most of the evidence for policy response is limited to the policy intentions of elected officials on issues related to more
or less government spending. We examine policy response to an alternative dimension of public mood, public preferences for
more or less punitive criminal justice policies, using multiple indicators of policy from various stages of the policy-making
process. Criminal justice policy should be responsive to public preferences given the public’s concern about crime and the
negative social construction of criminals. Thus, there is an electoral incentive for public officials to respond to public
preferences along this alternative dimension of public sentiment regarding criminal justice policy. We estimate a DYMIMIC
model of federal criminal justice policy as a function of the multiple dimensions of public policy mood using Kalman filtering.
The results indicate that criminal justice policy responds to the second, not the first, dimension of public mood. We find
evidence that policy-makers at multiple stages of the policy process are able to differentiate among multiple signals from
the public and respond appropriately. The results present a more sophisticated portrait of democratic responsiveness.
Fundamentalist affiliation and religious beliefs are generally related to more punitive attitudes toward criminals. Fundamentalists
also tend to attribute criminality to individual dispositional factors, and in turn, such factors are related to punitiveness.
Recently, it has also been found that compassionate dimensions of religion are related to treatment-oriented policies. It
is still not clear which dimensions of religion are related to punitive or treatment ideology and what effects religious variables
may have when tested against secular concerns about crime and crime attributions. In the present research, we test three models
of punitiveness and one model of rehabilitation with demographic, secular, religious, and attributional factors. We found
that those for whom religion is salient in their daily lives tend to believe that the death penalty should be reserved for
older offenders and that those who believe in a punitive God tend to support harsher punishments.