What can be concluded from these statistics on the religious beliefs of incarcerated criminals?

Question

The religious beliefs of incarcerated criminals in the U.S....

Catholic 29267 39.164%
Protestant 26162 35.008%
Muslim 5435 7.273%
American Indian 2408 3.222%
Nation 1734 2.320%
Rasta 1485 1.987%
Jewish 1325 1.773%
Church of Christ 1303 1.744%
Pentecostal 1093 1.463%
Moorish 1066 1.426%
Buddhist 882 1.180%
Jehovah Witness 665 0.890%
Adventist 621 0.831%
Orthodox 375 0.502%
Mormon 298 0.399%
Scientology 190 0.254%
Atheist 156 0.209%
Hindu 119 0.159%
Santeria 117 0.157%
Sikh 14 0.019%
Bahai 9 0.012%
Krishna 7 0.009%

(Appendix: 1997 Federal Bureau of Prisons)

I figure I might as well add-
"According to the ARIS 2001 survey, the total "No Religion Specified" category has grown to 29,481,000, roughly 14.1% of the population."

Answer 1

Only a fool would fail to note that the so-called "list" does not mention whether each inmate acquired his professed faith before or after his incarceration. As the saying goes: "There are no atheists in the foxhole", or in the prison.

Learn more:
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2001/5/8a/article_03.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20010508a/article_03.htm

Answer 2

Very interesting question. I imagine that you would find Unitarians at the bottom of the list, too.

What is not indicated is the breakdown between violent crime and other crimes, or whether the beliefs were acquired before or after incarceration?

In general, the link is not so much religion and crime as it is poverty and crime? So is there a strong link, then, between religion and poverty? The answer is, "absolutely". If you were to perform a cross section of the world's absolutely poorest places, guess what you find? A very strong history of Catholic and Protestant rule! In many countries, religion is used as a dominant force to keep the poor in a state of poverty. Think about it? What brings people out of poverty? 1) Education 2) Reduction of birth rate 3) Opportunity.

When used correctly, religion can be a wonderful tool to enhance lives. It can also be a tool to enslave people in a vicious cycle of poverty- when you disallow access to birth control, teach that the only education required is the teaching of the church, and that all grace is dependednt on God, and not of your own making (thus you can't raise yourself, you must accept your lot as God gave it to you).

Interesting that Native Americans, the single most poverty stricken group in America, are fourth on the list when they are such a small segment of the overall population? I believe the teachings of this following both enhance and detract from crime rates, in different ways than other religions, based on the hiostory of the native Americans in our country.

Of course, you are also seeing a cross-section representative of predominating American religions, more or less in order of magnitude. However, it does not acocunt for all the variance. I believe the % of atheisits and Mormons are much higher than is actually represented here, for instance. I think the statistics would be much more interesting if the distinction between violent and other crime were explored, and if the poverty link were included. Your demographics would be crystal clear then!

So the biggest part I see is the link between Catholicism and Protestantism with poverty (especially in first or second generation American families represented here), followed by the link between the teachings of the religion and its attitude towards self-actualization and other people.

Answer 3

As far as I'm concerned a vast majority of them are true Atheists, who believe in nothing but themselves, which is how they ended up in prison.

If you find yourself looking up the barrel of a man or woman who belives in nothing and has no conscience, don't resist, don't argue, give them what they want for NOTHING at all will stop them from pulling that trigger!

Anyone with a God, anyone with religion would hesitate and debate the issue with themselves.

That is the whole nature of religion, the controversy of right and wrong, good and evil.

When you no longer wrestle with those issues you are faithless and thus a true Atheist. You beleive in nothing. There is no God, no Sky Daddy that will judge your actions. There is only a reality, dead men tell no tales. There is no book of life, no witness in the sky, no Angels watching. IT is only about you and them and YOU are absoutely the most important.

This, of course, does not include religious martyrs who are in jail simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and their only crime was their religion or beliefs. They did no actual wrong in the sense of the word.

Saddam, for example. He's Islamic and in prision. Islamics are allowed to kill for Allah, not for Saddam. The court, which is supposed to follow Islamic law, has determined that Saddam did not round up people and have them killed for Allah, but because he felt they were connected with an assianation attem on Saddam. A vendetta. Apparently, Islam doesn't allow personal vendettas.

I don't know enough about Islamic faith to determine if or if not he's a good Islamic.

If he were Christian, we would immediately say NO, because we are not allowed to kill or judge. In fact he should be given a life sentenece under Chrsitianity, not the death penalty.

If a priest or minister is arrested in China for preaching and only for preaching, because that violated their Atheist idology, then the person is only guilty in the eyes of the government. It's a poltical arrest.

It's like the Rosenbergs in America. They were Jewish by birth and gave Atomic Secrets and were arrested for treasonous acts. That's a purely poltical event.

To the Russians they were heros. To Americans they were trators.

The relgion here is purelying incidental.

Now, we take a Christian who kills an abortion doctor in his home by shooting through a window. That shooter is NOT a Christian I can believe in and that action is not Christian as I know it to be.

To classify that person to me as a Christian Criminal is offensive to me, for they don't meet the test of the Bible. I don't care what they profess.

NO person can commit a TORT offense against another person and be viewed as religious, except maybe as PAganists or Satanists.

NO Muslim, Hindu, Jew or Christian can approve of ANY person who steals or robs or embezzels or cheats.

Religious people are supposed to hold themselves to high values.

Answer 4

These statistics really don't prove anything since they don't show what percentage of each religion is/or was in prison at any given time. They only show what percentage of the prison population is represented by each religion, which means that even though the catholics represent a higher percentage of the prisoners "39.164%" , there may very well be a smaller percentage of the total catholics in the world who are in prison.

Answer 5

The raw numbers look low. Is this Federal prisons only? Anyway the percent is useless w/o a comparison to the unincarcerated population. Why is there no number for atheists?

Answer 6

Thats a pretty low number of inmates they polled considering there are millions in the prison system.

Are these statistics talking about before they were incarcerated or did they convert after?

If they claim to follow a certain religion do they really follow it or are they just using the name like many do!

Answer 7

You would have done better to include the amount of practicing religious other than just blatant numbers like these. I noticed too that you have listed some Protestant denominations as separate. This is a bogus list.

Answer 8

The numbers are the essential conclusions. We can conclude that there are a lot more Catholics in the slammer than Hindu people.. It has to do with there being less of the Hindu people to start with.

Answer 9

If they are found guilty and really are guilty (serial killers with profound evidences), the best is to be given capital punishment.
There are many advantages to incarcerations:
- guilty/sinners have the chance to ask forgiveness to God, regrets their sinnings, to be introduced well to God`s kingdom if they truly will try to remorsefully regret their sins before dying. God knows what is in their heart.
- they can`t have many more victims in our society because they`re confined already in jail, in line with the death row.
- they should be illiminated as they are bad genes, anti-social, psychologically sick.
- they may be forgiven by God of their sins, but they`re addicted to it, and if given the opportunity...they will do it again and again and again. No amount of promise can stop their criminal tendencies. So, better let him die than more innocent victims.
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Answer 10

The United States oppresses Catholics!

What's the matter, scared of incense?