4 Finding Freedom in Confinement
other words, uninterrupted and regular church attendance may further insu-
late youth from crime and delinquency. Indeed, a number of studies find that
religion can help prevent high-risk urban youth from engaging in delinquent
behavior (Freeman 1986; Johnson, Larson, Jang, & Li 2000a, 2000b). Simi-
larly, Wallace and Foreman (1998) found that youth who attend church fre-
quently are less likely to engage in a variety of harmful behaviors, including
drug use, skipping school, fighting, and violent and nonviolent crimes. It is
not an exaggeration to state that youth exposure to religious and spiritual
activities can be a powerful inhibitor of crime and youth violence. These find-
ings are consistent with other empirical evidence linking religiosity to reduc-
tions in criminal deviance among adults and young adults (Duwe & Johnson
2013; Evans, Cullen, Dunaway, & Burton 1995; Johnson 2011; Johnson &
Jang 2012; ; Kerley, Matthews, & Blanchard 2005).
The religion-crime literature has grown over the last several decades and
has benefited from publication of rigorous systematic reviews and several
meta-analytic studies that utilize demanding methodological tools to evalu-
ate objectively the state of research in his area. Taken together, these review
studies confirm that increasing religiosity is associated with lower rates of
crime (Baier & Wright 2001; Johnson & Jang 2012; Johnson, Li, Larson, &
McCullough 2000; Kelly, Polanin, Jang, & Johnson 2015). Consequently, a sys-
tematic review of the lit er ature confirms that religion matters in consequen-
tial and beneficial ways when it comes to crime reduction ( Jang, Bader, &
Johnson 2008; Jang & Johnson 2005; Johnson, Jang, Li, & Larson 2001;
Ulmer, Desmond, Jang, & Johnson 2010), lower rates of recidivism for ex-
prisoners (Duwe & Johnson 2013; Duwe & King 2013; Johnson 2002, 2004,
2011; Johnson & Larson 2003; Johnson, Larson & Pitts 1997; ), and in helping
alcohol and drug abusers to desist ( Johnson, Lee, Pagano, & Post 2016; Lee,
Pagano, Johnson, & Post 2016). Regardless of the sample, the data set utilized,
or other study differences, church attendance and religious experiences remain
important factors linked to lower levels of deviant behavior and higher levels
of prosocial behavior ( Johnson & Jang 2012; Kerley, Matthews, & Blanchard
2005; Lee, Pagano, Johnson, & Post 2016; Lee, Poloma, & Post 2013). Simply
put, we know that higher religiosity is consistently associated with less crime
and delinquency.
Why Faith Matters in Crime Reduction
To know that religion is linked to less crime is obviously important, but it
would be shortsighted to stop there. Research is needed to answer the more
difficult question of why religion matters. Unfortunately, questions like the fol-
lowing rarely have been studied by scholars: Why are at-risk youth from
disadvantaged communities who regularly attend church less likely to violate
the law? Why does religiosity or religiousness help reduce the likelihood of
