A study coming out of Georgia State University found that religion might, in fact, help criminals justify their crimes rather than actually deter them from committing the act. The study analyzed 48 serious criminal offenders (robbers, con-artists, drug dealers etc…) from Atlanta. There have been many studies regarding the issue of religion and crime. The results have been pretty inconsistent. In some cases the level of religiosity can actually help deter an individual from committing a crime( victimless crimes) and in other studies there doesn’t really seem to be an effect. A great way to help gather more insight into this topic was to clarify the various kinds of offenders. In this study, victimless crimes and other petty crimes aren’t analyzed. The results of the study are quite astonishing. An overwhelming majority of the criminals interviewed self-identified with a religion. 44 of them considered themselves to be Christian, one was a Muslim and three were atheists. The main results of the study showed that offenders used a myriad of cognitive self-deceptions to justify and excuse their criminal behaviors. In some cases they actually believed God wanted them to do the crime or God understood why they were committing a specific crime. The manipulation of religious doctrines and in some cases out right ignorance allowed offenders to reconcile their actions with themselves, thus to them justifying the behavior. What is shocking is the fact that the criminals didn’t appear to be remorseful or sorry for their crimes due to the fact that their actions would be understood or forgiven by God.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 10:15:08 +0000