Do religious people commit more crimes?

Question

I postulate that religious people commit more crimes in the US. Are there any websites that either corroborate or refute this?

I agree that Immoral people commit more crimes. But my question still stands: Is there any data that says that say an Religious person is 87% more likely to commit a crime than an Atheist.

Does anyone have any Prision statistics broken up by religion. That might answer the Q.

Answer 1

I suggest that you are correct. On a simple level, just look at the serial killers of the last 30 years; almost all came from religious backgrounds, and many felt they were doing Gods work.

Answer 2

Of course they do.

More than 85% of serial killers consider themselves Republican.
Around 55% of rapists consider themselves as Republican.
Less than 40% of burglars consider themselves Republican.

Among Religions, we should think of Religion in terms of substance rather than form. When we see substance, we see that the Amish are the least criminal people on earth, with the exceptions of the dead and the comatozed.

Unitarians are pretty peaceful, as are Jains.

When we look at form, we can see that Christians have been the most blood-thirsty peoples of the earth. Muslims follow a distant second. We probably think that Jihad would make Muslims violent. Well, thats wrong. Muslims were able to spread primarily by absorbing all the little greedy bastards that wanted to avoid the 10% religious tax. Force was only applied to take the soldiers of the empire conquered who did not surrender.
Force came to become useful when the Muslims split.
Most Muslims violence has been agaisnt each other.
The other big violence was more against the Sikhs than against the Hindus, at least before the last fifty years. The Sikhs were particularly disliked because they created a bridge between Islam and Hinduism with their religion.
Buddhism has become violent in the last 100 years, mainly against Muslims.

Answer 3

history shows that most crimes came from religious people, start with christians- how many innocent people they killed around the world IN THE NAME OF GOD ? start with crusades thru us collonists to burning witches and war in yugoslavia, and finish with muslims- some more than 30 years now when ever there was some terrorist attack anywhere in the world there was always some muslims responsible for it, can they just get some jobs to keep them selves bussy ? then yes, in the US most people are somehow religious, but if that's the reason they commit a crime is hard to say

Answer 4

I really don't know. I don't think it would prove anything if it were the case. There are so many different kinds of religions, even different kinds of religions purporting to be Christian. Also different kinds of atheists I guess. Also, different levels of crime, so it would be difficult to define what "more crimes" would involve.
Perhaps religious people do more crimes, and religious people also do more good? The latter is certainly verifiable.
I'm sure if you make a list of all the genuine proved good works (I mean like the Non-Government Organizations), you would find that more had been started by "religious" people than by non-religious people.

Answer 5

Well, 75% of the prison population is Christian, and 0.2% are atheist....

Of course, many of the Christians in prison may also be just playing along with it, as it usually gets them shorter sentences and paroled more quickly.

But we have to face facts - those that commit crimes are usually uneducated. This might account for the fact that only 0.2% are atheists - either we dont commit as much crime, or we are more intelligent and dont get caught commiting crime. And, it is also a fact that the majority of people that accept religion are also un- or under educated....

Hey - I dont make the statistics up, so dont shoot the messenger!

Answer 6

well even sigmund frued states that man is a religious creature. so therefore 100% of all crimes are commited by religious creatures religiously. most probably because they are not actualy realy true to G-D, religiously. as abraham lincoln said: i fear that when men say G-D is on our side, they are not on TheSide of G-D when they say this.

and yes there are websites like the fbi or cia that can give you data on crime status of all nations. but then, what is called a crime, is somewhat deluded by the laws men pass, to seperate nations from each other without G-D. for not all that man calls a crime may be seen as a crime in G-D'S eyes. if you pass a law without including G-D then your laws are not recognized by G-D. for those who do not recognize HIS Laws.

Answer 7

I think hypocrites commit more crimes. The prisons are supposed full of religious not guilty people.

Answer 8

LIke I say there is bad apples in every batch of people. However, I do believe most Crimes are commited by those that deny the works of Christ and deny's the word of God and a personal relationship with the Lord.

Answer 9

No! I'm atheist, and believe WE deserve that honor. When you think about it, we have professed atheist, plus those that "profess" to be some religion, but really are not (THAT WOULD MAKE them ATHEISTS). According to their own belief systems, there are MUCH MORE of them than there are say TRUE christians. So I say we atheist theoretically can claim them TOO!!!

POWER TO THE ATHEIST!!!

Answer 10

Do you mean per capita, or in the aggregate?

I don't know about per capita, but I can state with reasonable assurance that because the vast majority of people consider themselves to be at least somewhat religious, in the aggregate more crimes are committed by religious people than non-religious people.