Title: RELIGIOSITY, RELIGIOUS CLIMATE, AND DELINQUENCY AMONG ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE
Abstract: In this paper the effect of religiosity on delinquent behaviour is examined for Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese (subdivided into Hindustani, Creoles, and Javanese), and Dutch boys. It is proposed that religion can be considered as an element of the social bond. Next, the distinction between moral and secular communities introduced by Stark et al. (1982) is applied to the ethnic groups, leading to the conclusion that Moroccans and Turks live in moral communities, while the Dutch live in a secular community. The results show that there is a modest relation between religiosity and delinquent behaviour in some groups, but the distinction between moral and secular communities does not help to explain these relations. Socio-economic background variables appear to be unrelated to religiosity. Finally, some comments are presented on the characterization of communities as moral or secular. It is concluded that it may be necessary to have additional information on the social networks in a community to find an explanation of the relation between religiosity and delinquency that is applicable to different cultures. The Purpose and Scope of this Paper Recent research has suggested that closer investigation of the relation between religiosity and delinquent behaviour might help explain differences in crime rates in the US between blacks and whites (Wallace and Bachman 1991). Our paper attempts to address this issue and discusses the effect of religiosity on delinquent behaviour for four ethnic groups. Data are presented for Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese, and Dutch boys living in the Netherlands. First, we propose that religion can be considered as an element of the social bond as formulated by social control theory. We then use two other theoretical frameworks to interpret our data. A first framework was developed by Stark et al. (1982), who introduced the concept of religious climate and distinguished between moral and secular communities, arguing that only in moral communities can a relation between religiosity and delinquency be expected. A second framework derives from Tittle and Welch (1983). In opposition to Stark et al. (1982), they argued that the relation between religiosity and delinquency will be found only in socially less integrated contexts. After discussing these viewpoints, we present evidence concerning the question whether the four ethnic groups in the study do form 'communities'. The relation between delinquency and religiosity is then investigated. We also consider the possibility that the relation between religiosity and delinquency disappears after
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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