What it the relationship between devout religiosity(belief in god) and violent crime rate based on country.?

Question

Please post violent crime rate per capitia vs religosity rates for each country. Thus deduce if religious or godless people are more violent.

Answer 1

The study mentioned here has the data:

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.

It compares the social peformance of relatively secular countries, such as Britain, with the US, where the majority believes in a creator rather than the theory of evolution. Many conservative evangelicals in the US consider Darwinism to be a social evil, believing that it inspires atheism and amorality.

Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion. The benefits of religious belief to a society have been described as its “spiritual capital”. But the study claims that the devotion of many in the US may actually contribute to its ills.

The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world.

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions.

He compared social indicators such as murder rates, abortion, suicide and teenage pregnancy.

The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “ uniquely high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested.

Mr Paul said: “The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America.”

He said that the disparity was even greater when the US was compared with other countries, including France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries. These nations had been the most successful in reducing murder rates, early mortality, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion, he added.

Mr Paul delayed releasing the study until now because of Hurricane Katrina. He said that the evidence accumulated by a number of different studies suggested that religion might actually contribute to social ills. “I suspect that Europeans are increasingly repelled by the poor societal performance of the Christian states,” he added.

He said that most Western nations would become more religious only if the theory of evolution could be overturned and the existence of God scientifically proven. Likewise, the theory of evolution would not enjoy majority support in the US unless there was a marked decline in religious belief, Mr Paul said.

“The non-religious, proevolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator.

“The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted.”

Answer 2

What the Hell is religiosity? As long as I have been on the religious page I have never heard that word. Waite I just looked it up. Yes it is a word. I am really impressed. You are so intelligent I am overwhelmed. Now go play with you Barby's and let the adults talk. A person should never use a word when they believe they have to explain it's meaning. You just enjoy talking down to people. You have no interest in the question. Only in showing your superiority.
Kisses BB

Answer 3

It's a combination of relaxed policy toward illegal immigration from the ME--the British papers have even said that there are certain gangs that have a very jihad-like mentality-and ridiculously stiff gun law policy. They were even going to restrict the right to wear hoodies (because they were at one time associated with gangs). Peace @crabwriter-I don't know what propaganda you have been reading, but-The UK has surpassed South Africa's violent crime rates (South Africa also has draconian gun laws), something no one thought was possible. They are doing far worse than the US in terms of violent crime. Having worse crime rates than South Africa is like having more bratwurst than Germany.

Answer 4

I don't remember where I saw it (you can google it) but studies have shown that the more religious a country is (usually measured by the percentage of church-going population), the higher the crime rate, murder rate, abortion and teen pregnancy rates, and the lower the literacy rate, the higher the infant death rate.

Answer 5

I don't think being religious prevents crime unless one has a good religion that loves the Creator God & loves/respects others also.

But laws help prevent crimes. And there are laws in religions also. And it is breaking the law that people do to be criminals.

Answer 6

Those that do crime, will get their shell kicked

Answer 7

Not sure where to find that