nogods4me

I have often used the stats on the paucity of atheists in prison as a quick comeback when one of those clever theists says "There are no atheists in foxholes". I usually tell them that statement is demonstrably false, but if they want to be correct they might want to change it to "There are no atheists in prison."

god-free-pen

The official government statistics on the religious affiliation of inmates at prisons was contained in a letter to Ron Swift, dated 5 March 1997 from:

Denise Golumbaski
Research Analyst
FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS

The data is located at:

<a href="http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm" target="_blank">www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm</a>

<a href="http://www.holysmoke.org/wicca/prison.htm" target="_blank">www.holysmoke.org/wicca/prison.htm</a>

Atheists, at .209% comprise
less than 1%

while Catholics stand at 39.164%
Protestants at 35.008% and Muslims 7.273% (I imagine that figure has climbed since 9/11 !)

emphryio

Even though I'm very much an atheist. I've said in the past that these results are just because prisoners know or suspect they're more likely to get paroled if they say they've found jesus or whatever.

BUT, I think there might be more to it than that.
The percentage of atheists is so low, that there must be more to it.

theyeti

I don't think that being an atheist per se makes one less likely to commit crime. Rather, being an atheist is correlated to socio-economic qualities -- high education, affluence, professional sucess -- that make one less likely to end up in prison. There may be other reasons too, having to do with for example with rational thinking (not that theists are always irrational, but most irrational people may be theists) but I don't know how one would investigate this.

I would also be cautious about citing that stat. According to the web site, nearly 20% didn't answer the question, and if atheists tend to be overrepresented in that category, it could mean that atheists are in prison in proportion to their numbers, perhaps in even greater proportion. Also, that page only lists numbers for federal prisions. State prisons, I think , have far more people in them. Does anyone have stats for all prisoners, preferably with only a small portion of "unknown" category?

theyeti

Fiach

In the second post of the thread, US prisons contain 0.209% Atheists. Out of a relatively low Atheist American population of between 5% and 8%, it still suggests that Atheists are "underrepresented" in American prisons, being 4% of the predicted rate based on their population. That is rather impressive.

However, there are other factors.

1. In America, a most religious, anti-Atheistic country, a convict with any brains would know not to admit to being an Atheist. Being a christian, means early parole, being Atheist means serving out one's full term. So few will say, "hey I'm an atheist lock me up and throw away the key. So there may be more atheists in prison. They are just smart enough to fake being Christian, or "born again" to get out earlier.

2. Atheists are generally more affluent than the general population, I read somewhere. Crime comes largely with poverty.

3. Crime is inversely related to IQ. Atheists whether educated or not tend to be more intelligent and logical thinkers than religionists who live in delusional worlds. Atheists being more rational are less likely to commit a crime, and less likely to be caught if they do.

Fiach

mizpah

Interesting stuff...

I have worked in a couple different prison settings. Being a religious (delusional apparently?) fellow, religion came up frequently in conversation. I heard most often that religion is not used as a criteria for parole, but involvement in prision activities and organizations is, which may have led inmates to feel "encouraged" to affliate themselves with religion.
Of course, not every inmate who identifies himself or herself as religious is involved with religious orginizations. I suspect the stat has more to do with education and affluence, as has already been stated. Still, very thought-provoking....

Obviously not hard data, but I thought it might be an interesting contribution.

GeoTheo

Atheists have smaller testicles!
"An article from Finland shows that men who are habitual criminal offenders with personality disorders have very high blood levels of the
male hormone..."
<a href="http://www.drmirkin.com/men/7841.html" target="_blank">http://www.drmirkin.com/men/7841.html</a>

"Men, in general, are much more aggressive than women -- a fact that has led researchers to investigate possible links between levels of male hormones (particularly
testosterone) and aggressive or criminal behavior."
<a href="http://www.crime-times.org/95c/w95cp4.htm" target="_blank">http://www.crime-times.org/95c/w95cp4.htm</a>

"High testosterone levels in men are linked with
alcohol abuse and, weakly, with aggression, suggesting that altered hormone levels could contribute to criminal behavior."
<a href="http://www.pulmonaryreviews.com/march02/smoking.html" target="_blank">http://www.pulmonaryreviews.com/march02/smoking.html</a>

"A high testosterone level is directly linked with manipulating behaviour as lying. In my practise as a forensic psychologist at the Stockholm Bureau of Investigation (1982-1987) I kept notes on the men I interviewed during a crime investigation."
<a href="http://somniloquy.online.fr/TSI3/testosteron.html" target="_blank">http://somniloquy.online.fr/TSI3/testosteron.html</a>

"Loss of body hair, reduced muscle mass, decreased testicle size (emphasis mine) and bone fractures can be symptoms of severe and prolonged reduction of
testosterone. . ."
<a href="http://www.testocreme.com/androquiz.html" target="_blank">http://www.testocreme.com/androquiz.html</a>

Atheists make up less than 2% of the prison population.

ohwilleke

One can name at least one demographic variable that would influence the religious affiliation of the prison population. A disporportionately large percentage of federal prison inmates are black. African-Americans are far less likely to be atheists than the general population.

On the other hand, those who identify as non-religious are also on average younger and more likely to be male than the general population. This would tend to produce higher levels of atheism in the prison population.