FREE ESSAY ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND RELIGION

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND RELIGION

Over the years, countless efforts have been made to find a comprehensive explanation for
delinquency. The results of these efforts have offered possible reasons as being both
biological and social. It is still debatable as to what forces have the greatest
influence on youth crime, but it is undoubted that several factors clearly make an
impact. The direct relationships a child has with concrete social elements, like his
family and friends, are likely to give some intimation of his involvement in crime.
However, it must be noted that there are more abstract contexts for socialization that
also exist as potential explanations for a child's behavior. The most prominent of these
less specific forces are the media, community, and religion. It has been argued
extensively that these three elements represent a major source of delinquency in the U.S.
today. Everyone has at one time or another heard accusations against television, for
instance, and how it has such degenerating capabilities in relation to young minds.
Equally common are the various public proclamations about the lack of brotherhood among
citizens of this country. These complaints are nothing new to our society; before
television was vilified, it was radio, and before radio it was comic books. In short,
these problems merely exist as different manifestations of an age-old concern. Another,
seemingly less obvious, aspect of this argument deals with the role of religion in
society. In paralleling it to delinquency, for all its power and influence, religion is
much more perplexing than the media or sense of community. For one, religion exists on
many different levels and is extremely difficult to define in a fashion suitable to the
debate. In addition, the fact that religion is such a controversial and sensitive subject
only complicates the pursuit of characterizing and understanding it. These obstacles
notwithstanding, the multifaceted effects of religion on crime have been argued for
centuries. They will likely continue, as people observe that religion influences the
behavior of people, serves as a set of values for society, and correlates with
delinquency in several ways.
The relationship between crime and religion has been explored for many years, with only a
handful of theorists drawing any direct conclusions. Among few others, three of the most
influential social philosophers of the past 200 years, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, have
all commented on the importance of religion to this issue. Marx believed that religion
existed to give people a false hope for the future and to keep them motivated during the
present. In accomplishing this, religion also deterred people from crime by making them
concentrate on their social roles, while ignoring the oppression of stratified economic
systems. Durkheim asserted that "social order could be maintained only if people had
common beliefs in something greater than themselves" (Jensen and Rojek 309). He saw
religion as very interconnected with social values as it contributed to a loss of strong
communal bonds between the tenants of Western society. As people begin to believe more in
themselves and less in a higher power, Durkheim argued, they become less committed to an
interdependent society and highly prone to selfish acts of lawlessness. Weber, another
distinguished sociologist, attributed social deviance to religious factors as well. He
believed that "religious institutions were intertwined with other institutions,"
contributing to both progressive and regressive social development (Jensen and Rojek
309). These three attempted to explain the social importance of religion, while only
scratching the surface of its relationship to crime. Although they fail to adequately
expand on the subject, the ideas of these influential thinkers represent some basic
thoughts on the religious causes of crime, and they have led to successive investigations
of religion and delinquency.
Surprisingly, facts about crime and religion over the years have been rather
indecipherable, as research findings from different studies have frequently produced
contradicting results. Studies have shown delinquents being less religious than
nondelinquents, religiously similar to nondelinquents, and in some cases more religious
than nondelinquents. Even when differences between delinquent and nondelinquent relations
to religion have been found, those differences have been only minor and insignificant. In
one major study by Hirschi and Stark, it was discovered that high school students held
interesting social beliefs relative to their church attendance rates. Essentially, the
trend for these students was that "attitudes that were unrelated or weakly related to
church attendance were the most relevant for delinquency, and those beliefs that were
related to church attendance were not related to delinquent behavior" (Jensen and Rojek
312). Thus, the study offers a portrait of religion that has no strong bearing on
delinquency whatsoever. With studies such as this one becoming very popular, the dispute
over the role of religion in delinquency is made more puzzling. In response, it has been
proposed that the very definition of religion is the reason for the difficulty that
sociologists experience in trying to distinguish delinquency from a religious
perspective. For instance, religious ideals are so popular in society, even among the
nonreligious, that it is possible that all people are accustomed to a "type of civil
religion" (Jensen and Rojek 312). If every citizen follows these veiled religious
standards, consciously or unconsciously, it may be very problematic to assign specific
effects of religion on delinquency. Because religion is such an obscure notion, there is
no correct way to view its possible social consequences. Although some studies have
represented religious causes of crime as negligible, more recent data has provided
insight into alternative measures of religion and delinquency.
Later arguments began to proclaim social control theories that religious traditions serve
as inhibitors of deviant behavior. Normally, religious practices advocate policies of
self-control, temperance, and self-denial. In this case, religion prevents people from
acting in opposition of these policies. Accordingly, a study by Burkett and White
concluded that alcohol and drug use was less common among church-going people than those
who were religiously inactive. Also, research by Bruce Johnson indicated that church
attendance was a strong factor in predicting the marijuana use of college students. In
this study, church attendees were less likely to be regular users, and 77 percent of them
reported never having used marijuana. On the other hand, "only 26 percent of nonattendees
were complete abstainers" (Jensen and Rojek 313). Another similar study by Middleton and
Putney suggested that religious values inhibit the breaking of religious standards, but
do not inhibit the potential violation of social standards. Moreover, continuing studies
illustrated that the ways in which religion influences crime may be different in specific
regions, depending on the degree of commitment to religion in that area. Similarly,
"researchers have proposed that some measures of religiosity are more likely to correlate
with delinquency as well" (Jensen and Rojek 314). Religiosity, or differing degrees of
personal or private commitment, church attendance, faith, and practice of values, may
present a better explanation of how religion affects crime than other social elements.
Modern research has begun to find more clues outlining the extent to which religion is
relevant to the study of delinquency.
Furthermore, the actual ways in which religion directly leads to crime have been surveyed
throughout the history of human civilization. Religious fundamentalists from various
denominations have participated in violent acts in the name of their religious causes.
Wars have been fought again and again over religious disputes. Monumental historical
tragedies ranging from the Crusades to the Nazi Holocaust have had their roots in
religious inspiration. More recently, society has witnessed religious crimes such as "the
bombing of abortion clinics and the trashing of adult bookstores," all mandated by an
extreme faith (Jensen and Rojek 310). Regardless of whether it is argued that religion
affects or does not affect attitudes about delinquency, the point is made clear that its
study is relevant. By further studying beliefs of church attendees, delinquent behavior
in different regions, denominations, and levels of religiosity, as well as the religious
views of actual delinquents, we can continue to develop a more clear picture of religion
as an important context for delinquent behavior.
Bibliography
Jensen, Gary F., and Dean G. Rojek. Delinquency and Youth Crime. Waveland Press:
Illinois, 1998.