Review of Studies Finds Religiousness a Factor in Reducing Juvenile Delinquency

New York, NY November 13, 1998... Religion can help lower the incidence of juvenile delinquency, according to a recent report developed by researchers from the National Institute for Healthcare Research and Vanderbilt University. The report, released by the Manhattan Institute today at a conference entitled 'Faith-Based Community Programs: Good Works Make Good Cities" in New York City, is based on a systematic review of 40 journal articles that quantitatively studied a religious aspect of delinquency. The review shows several key findings that underline the relevance of religion in preventing youth crime.

The researchers, David B. Larson, M.D., M.S.P.H. and Byron R. Johnson, Ph.D., are renowned for their work in evaluating the role of religiosity in physical, mental and social health. Dr. Larson is president of the National Institute for Healthcare Research and is adjunct professor, Duke University Medical Center. He has authored dozens of published systematic reviews measuring the impact of spirituality on health. Dr. Johnson is director, Center for Crime and Justice Policy, and senior fellow, Vanderbilt University. He has published numerous studies measuring the impact of spirituality and religion on criminal behavior.

According to the researchers, religiousness in juvenile delinquency has not been perceived as a strong or relevant factor in reducing juvenile behavior; therefore, to the detriment of our communities, religiousness has not been tested with a consistent or reliable research methodology. However, as noted, the review findings give a different picture. They show that religion is a strong factor in negating juvenile delinquency and the better it is tested and measured, the better it holds up. For example, the report reveals that the more stringently the religiosity variables are used, the more conclusive the findings. In other words, the greater the number of categories of religiousness that were measured (four or more), the more consistently juvenile delinquency was shown to be reduced. Conversely, the effect was mixed or inconclusive when fewer (two or less) measures of religious dimensions were included. The review also showed that if the measure of religion was a reliable one, the more consistently it showed religion to be a preventive factor in delinquency. The less reliable, the less likely it would consistently provide any findings demonstrating the benefits of religiosity on behavior.

Dimensions, or categories, of religiousness measures were defined and examined as follows: 1) Attendance at religious services; 2) Salience, or importance of one's religion or God in one's life; 3) Religious denomination; 4) Prayer; 5) Religious activities (that the individual participates in religious activities both inside and outside of typical church/synagogue settings. 6) Bible study. Salience and attendance were the two most frequently used variables to measure religiosity.

According to Dr. Larson, the review illuminates the fact that religiousness in juvenile delinquency research has tended to be overlooked. And he notes that among the majority of studies that included religious variables, the quality of the research measures have not been strong. He reiterates, "The better the measures, the stronger are the results that demonstrate the benefits of religiosity on reducing juvenile delinquency. If we are serious about implementing programs that work, then the policy and research communities should look toward developing better studies that include and test the influence of religion as a factor in potentially reducing at risk criminal behavior."

The review began with the examination of 402 journal articles that included aspects of delinquency from fields of criminology, sociology and psychology published between January, 1980 and December, 1997. Ten percent of the studies examined the relationship between religion and youth crime. The focus of the systematic review was to examine these 40 studies that included a measure of religion. Most studies (736) treated religious variables as the central focus of the study. The vast majority (736) of the studies revealed that religious measures consistently showed a beneficial effect as a deterrent to juvenile delinquency. Only one of the 40 studies showed no benefit. This high benefit to harm ratio has been shown in other studies including religion and the mental and physical health fields.

Dr. Larson concludes, "The key to what the research found is that the better we study religion, the more likely we are to find it is a relevant and beneficial factor in relationship to preventing youth crime."


The National Institute for Healthcare Research is a Washington, D.C. -based non-profit organization, which collects and analyzesresearch on the fink between spirituality and physical, mental and social health.