Hellfire Does Not Deter Crime – Prisoner Survey on Religion (2021)

A black-and-white photograph of a Victorian-era prison chapel featuring tiered, enclosed wooden pews designed to isolate each prisoner during worship. Mannequins representing inmates sit in separate compartments beneath tall windows, evoking themes of discipline, solitude, and moral instruction.

Hellfire Does Not Deter Crime

In Spring and Summer 2021, the Percy Foundation distributed questionnaires on religious beliefs and practice to the prisoners enrolled in its prison book program. A total of 526 questionnaires were returned to us. Our inquiry aimed to ascertain whether strong religiosity either in childhood upbringing or as adults prior to incarceration acts as a deterrent or risk factor in criminal propensity. Although previous scholarship generally shows that the religiously observant are more law-abiding than those with no or weak religious commitment (see Adamczyk, Freilich, & Kim 2017 for the most recent systematic review), few studies have examined this question with specific regard to those convicted for crimes of a sexual nature that carry particularly strong moral stigma in many world religions. The well-publicized scandals involving sex crimes by members of Catholic religious orders, as well as less well-known reports of widespread sexual abuse within ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities (Lusky-Weisrose, Marmor, & Tener 2021), Mennonite communities, and some evangelical churches (see Rashid & Barron 2019 for yet other cases), raise the question whether conservative belief traditions with strong sexual taboos may create a form of perverse implantation in some individuals. Psychoanalytic assumptions might suggest the influence of highly repressed sexuality that erupts into counter-normative or antinomian channels.

An Australian study of 111 incarcerated non-clerical sex offenders in Queensland (Eshuys & Smallbone 2006) suggested that the prisoners who reported both religious upbringing as children and continuing religiosity as adults had the most victims and the youngest victims. A recent study of 227 gay men found that those who were religiously affiliated were six times more likely to exhibit the symptoms of Compulsive Sexual Behavior (Gleason, Finotelli, et al. 2021). Other studies have suggested that pornography consumption or Google searches for male enhancement products (Perry & Whitehead 2021) are highest in parts of the US with the largest populations of the religiously devout, suggesting that religiosity contributes to strong sexual desires, patriarchal attitudes, and feelings of male inadequacy, all of which may also be correlated with higher rates of sex offending.

Our data collection effort is unique in involving a larger sample of sex offenders (325), whose parameters can be compared with a non-sex offender control group of male prisoners (201), as well as readily available demographic data about religious practice and affiliation in the US male population as a whole. Following best practices in this area of research, our survey instrument evaluated religious devotion through multiple measures: (1) religious activity, i.e. attendance of worship services, study of scripture, (2) religious belief, i.e. self-evaluated importance of religion in one’s life and theological beliefs, (3) prayer, and (4) belief tradition or denomination.

On the whole, our results found that sex offenders were slightly more religious than the criminal population as a whole, but less religious than men in the general U.S. population. However, the differences were less than one might assume: religious upbringing, belief, and practice were common among all criminal groups and did not appear to act as effective deterrents. For example, 69.5% of sex offenders and 62.7% of non-sex criminals in our survey said religious faith was “somewhat or very important” to them as adults prior to their incarceration, compared to 73% of adult males in the general U.S. population according to the 2014 Pew Forum Religious Landscape Survey (of 17,514 men); however, the difference was greater among those rating it “very important” (47% of the general population vs. 24.3% of sex offenders, 18.4% of other offenders). 36.9% of sex offenders and 37.3% of non-sex criminals reported never attending religious worship services as adults prior to their incarceration; for comparison, 35% of adult men in the general U.S. population reported “seldom or never” attending services. At the other end of the scale, 14.2% of sex offenders and 9% of non-sex criminals reported weekly attendance of services, compared to 31% of the overall adult male population. The general picture that emerges from the data is that male criminals are not irreligious in belief, but are less disciplined and devoted in their religious practice.

One area where criminals are notably stronger in religious belief than the general adult male population is that they are more likely to believe in Hell. According to the Pew survey, 56% of adult male Americans believe in Hell, whereas 73% of non-sex offending criminals said they believed in Hell prior to their incarceration; at 59%, the figure for sex offenders was much closer to the norm. Moreover, they report having internalized that belief as children: 78% of non-sex criminals and 72% of sex offenders affirmed that as children, they believed in “Hell as a place of torment for unrepentant sinners.” It is striking that such a strong belief in eternal punishment did not deter these individuals from committing serious criminal acts; this in turn raises questions about the whole doctrine of rational deterrence upon which the carceral system has been erected. It is interesting to note that although they mostly believe in Hell, only 31% of non-sex criminals and 19% of sex criminals believe that they personally are “at serious risk of going to Hell.” This may be related to the finding that two-thirds of both groups believed in “a loving God who forgives most sinners, even if they sometimes do very bad things.” This more liberal Christian doctrine provides them an out.

An illuminating qualitative study of 48 active, non-incarcerated African-American “street offenders” in Atlanta (drug dealers, carjackers, muggers, burglars) found them willing “to exploit the absolvitory tenets of religious doctrine” to justify continuing their criminal lifestyle without serious fear of negative consequences in the afterlife, despite a belief in the likelihood of early death (Topalli, Brezina, & Bernhardt 2013). Many believed that it was God’s protection that kept them alive as long as they were in their very dangerous lifestyle in a notoriously violent part of the city. Although 45 of the 48 claimed to be religious believers, the researchers often encountered statements like the following from an 18-year old robber: “I didn’t really go to church enough to know all the details, just the important shit, like Jesus forgives you for all your bad shit if you donate some money to the church, or pray and say you’re sorry.” Others reasoned that Hell was the present life on Earth and death brought deliverance to a better place, or that Hell was only for people they regarded as worse than themselves: “the murderers, rapists, child molesters. People with no kind of morals or values about themselves or about other people” in the words of a 40-year old transsexual con artist. Some saw their criminality as part of God’s plan, like the 25-year old Cool: “if you doing some wrong to another bad person, like if I go to rob a dope dealer or a molester or something, then it don’t count against me because it’s like I’m giving punishment to them for Jesus. That’s God’s will. Oh you molested some kids? Well now I’m [God] sending Cool over to your house to get your ass.”

Another interesting result is that prisoners are less inclined to accept the theory of evolution than the general population. The Baylor Religion Survey Wave 2 (2007) involved a nationwide sample of 756 males, of whom 46.1% agreed with the theory of evolution (39.6% disagreed, 14.2% were unsure). In our survey, only 23% of the non-sex offender group and 33% of the sex offender group supported evolutionary theory (vs. 50% and 44% respectively adopting a creationist view, the rest unsure). One might attribute this result to differences in educational level between incarcerated and non-incarcerated populations, but the prisoners enrolled in the Percy Foundation’s book program (which includes many books of an advanced academic nature) are more literate and better educated than most incarcerated persons, and probably approach or exceed the general population in these terms. How are we therefore to understand this result? It cannot necessarily be attributed to prisoners accepting scriptural authority to a greater degree than men generally: if anything, criminals are less likely to accept Scripture as the direct inspiration of God (49% of believing non-sex offenders, 39% of believing sex offenders, compared to 52% of adult males generally according to the Pew Forum) and more likely to view them as men’s interpretation of God’s word. What this simultaneous suspicion of both Scripture and scientific theory suggests is a greater distrust of all forms of social and intellectual authority.

It may be unsurprising that sex offenders were twice as likely to report struggling with their sexuality due to their faith or their parents’ faith: 44.9% stuggled somewhat or very much as adolescents (compared to 21.2% of non-sex offenders), and 40.7% as adults (compared to 20.6% of non-sex offenders); these figures need to be contextualized within the fact that close to one third of our sample reported that religion was not at all important to them either as children or adults, so among those sex offenders for whom religion was important, most struggled. This may in part be due to a higher proportion of gay and bi-sexual identified individuals among the sex offender group in our sample; the peak age of attraction (whether to children, adolescents, or adults) seems to have made little difference in predicting such struggles. The difference does not appear to be a result of more conservative sexual attitudes on the part of their parents: 53.5% of non-sex offenders and 46.1% of sex offenders report that religion played no role in their parents’ view of sexual morality, a small but statistically insignificant difference. The two groups also revealed no statistically significant difference in religious attendance, family prayer, or parental attention to reading scripture while they were growing up.

The experience of being arrested and incarcerated did bring many prisoners back to religion: 56% of non-sex offenders and 50% of sex offenders now consider themselves “born again,” as compared to 32.3% of the general adult male population (based on a sample of 1764 men in the General Social Survey [2014]). 54.2% of incarcerated non-sex offenders and 56.9% of sex offenders now report that religious faith is very important to them, compared to only 18.4% and 24.3% prior to their imprisonment. These numbers exceed the 47% of males in the general population who say so in the Pew Forum survey. 68.5% of non-sex offenders and 70.6% of sex offenders say that their religious faith has grown stronger or that they have converted to a new religion since their imprisonment. It is evident that religion gives them some comfort amid the misery and hopelessness that many now face. It is for this reason that the Percy Foundation does supply donated religious literature to inmates, even though our organization is completely secular and few of us are religious. The qualitative study of twelve Christian sex offenders incarcerated in the UK (Winder, Blagden, & Lievesley 2018) revealed several benefits of religious re-engagement while in prison, including helping inmates cope by giving them a non-judgmental environment, helping them envision a more altruistic and socially responsible life, and providing therapeutic support mechanisms. However, the authors of that study also expressed concern that non-acceptance of sex offenders by religious communities post-release threatened to erase that progress.

One of this study’s goals was to determine whether certain types of religious faith traditions were more or less likely to generate criminality. Prisoners were accordingly asked to designate the particular religious denomination in which they were brought up as children. For the most part, our sample corresponded closely with the overall distribution of religious affiliations in the US population, except that fewer of our sample reported no family religious affiliation (12.2%) than do adults in the US population overall (22.8% according to the Pew Forum survey). In other words, growing up with no nominal religion in the family does not seem to produce more criminality, but the opposite. There was little difference in denominational background between non-sex offenders and sex offenders, with two modest exceptions: sex offenders were more likely to grow up in Catholic families (23.1%) than non-sex criminals (14.4%), compared to 20.8% of the US population overall. Among Protestants, sex offenders were slightly more likely to have grown up in major mainline denominations (Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Church of Christ) than non-sex criminals: 29.6% vs. 16.4% of Protestants in each group. However, both types of criminals were most likely to have grown up in more conservative faith traditions (Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist, Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witness): 60.3% for sex offenders, 77.9% for non-sex criminals. Whether this difference is due to class-based or racial differences in the composition of the two groups remains to be explored. Another fruitful area for future study would be the extent to which theological traditions positing divine predestination and being “elect” from birth provide an excuse for the criminally inclined to believe they will not face eternal damnation regardless of their behavior.

An area of perennial anxiety to some parents is the thought of sex offenders being active within their churches to gain access to children. Among those sex offenders who were religious, 16.8% reported frequently volunteering in their church prior to their arrest, and another 27.4% said they sometimes did so (a total of 44.2%). This does exceed the percentage of common criminals who volunteered in church (38.9%), but is not statistically different from the percentage of American men who reported doing so within the last twelve months (46.2% according to the 2006 Faith Matters Survey of 775 U.S. adult males). Sex offenders are present in churches just as they are in every other facet of American life, but there is little evidence that they disproportionately target churches to obtain easy access to victims.

References

Adamczyk, A., Freilich, J. D., & Kim, C. “Religion and Crime: A Systematic Review and Assessment of Next Steps.” Sociology of Religion 78.2 (2017) 192-232.

https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx012

Eshuys, D., & Smallbone, S. “Religious Affiliations Among Adult Sexual Offenders.” Sex Abuse 18 (2006) 279-88.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11194-006-9020-5

Gleason, N., Finotelli, I., et al. “Estimated Prevalence and Demographic Correlates of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Among Gay Men in the United States.” Journal of Sexual Medicine 18.9 (2021) 1545-54.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2021.07.003

Lusky-Weisrose, E., Marmor, A., & Tener, D. “Sexual Abuse in the Orthodox Jewish Community: A Literature Review.” Trauma, Violence & Abuse 22.5 (2021) 1086-1103.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020906548

Perry, S. L., & Whitehead, A. L. “Linking Evangelical Subculture and Phallically Insecure Masculinity Using Google Searches for Male Enhancement .” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 60.2 (2021) 442-53.

https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12717

Rashid, F., & Barron, I. “Why the Focus of Clerical Child Sexual Abuse has Largely Remained on the Catholic Church amongst Other Non-Catholic Christian Denominations and Religions.” Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 28.5 (2019) 564-85.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2018.1563261

Topalli, V., Brezina, T., & Bernhardt, M. “With God on my Side: The Paradoxical Relationship Between Religious Belief and Criminality among Hardcore Street Offenders.” Theoretical Criminology 17.1 (2013) 49-69.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480612463114

Winder, B., Blagden, N., & Lievesley, R. “’Because You’ve Got Faith It Doesn’t Mean That You’ve Got Wings on Your Back’: A Qualitative Analysis of the Accounts of Christian Prisoners Serving Time for a Sexual Offense.” Journal of Sexual Aggression 24.2 (2018) 239-55.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2018.1504553

Breakdown of Results by Question

Section 1. Religious Upbringing.

Family attendance of religious services when a child:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 30a	58a	88
14.9%	17.8%	16.7%
Occasionally 73a	89b	162
36.3%	27.4%	30.8%
Often 36a	54a	90
17.9%	16.6%	17.1%
Weekly or more 62a	124a	186
30.8%	38.2%	35.4%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

We do have some good comparative evidence for attendance of religious services in the U.S. population at large by families with children. The Baylor Religion Survey (2005) asked a random sample of 1704 adults (both male and female) how often they attended religious services at age 12: 65.3% said weekly or more, 13.2% said at least monthly (equivalent to our category of “Often”), 15.2% said several times a year or less (equivalent to our category of “Occasionally”), and only 6.2% never.

Family prayer at meals while a child:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 90a	152a	242
44.8%	46.8%	46.0%
Sometimes 56a	85a	141
27.9%	26.2%	26.8%
Frequently 18a	36a	54
9.0%	11.1%	10.3%
Every day 37a	52a	89
18.4%	16.0%	16.9%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Parental reading of scriptures while a child:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 86a	142a	228
43.4%	44.0%	43.8%
Sometimes 55a	80a	135
27.8%	24.8%	25.9%
Frequently 31a	60a	91
15.7%	18.6%	17.5%
Every day 26a	41a	67
13.1%	12.7%	12.9%
198	323	521
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Personal prayer as a child:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 47a	90a	137
23.4%	27.7%	26.0%
Sometimes 114a	139b	253
56.7%	42.8%	48.1%
Frequently 23a	59b	82
11.4%	18.2%	15.6%
Every day 17a	37a	54
8.5%	11.4%	10.3%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Importance of religious faith as a child:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Not at all 63a	103a	166
31.3%	31.7%	31.6%
Somewhat 95a	126a	221
47.3%	38.8%	42.0%
Very much 43a	96b	139
21.4%	29.5%	26.4%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Did religion influence parental attitudes toward sexual morality?

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Not at all 106a	149a	255
53.5%	46.1%	48.9%
Somewhat 44a	86a	130
22.2%	26.6%	25.0%
Very much 48a	88a	136
24.2%	27.2%	26.1%
198	323	521
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Did you struggle with sexuality as an adolescent because of your or your parents’ faith?

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Not at all 156a	178b	334
78.8%	55.1%	64.1%
Somewhat 16a	70b	86
8.1%	21.7%	16.5%
Very much 26a	75b	101
13.1%	23.2%	19.4%
198	323	521
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Loss of faith:

Among survey participants who say they lost their faith, the median age of doing so was 13.0 for sex offenders, 11.6 for non-sex offenders.

Section 2. Religious Beliefs as Adults Prior to Arrest.

Importance of religious faith:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Not at all 75a	99a	174
37.3%	30.5%	33.1%
Somewhat 89a	147a	236
44.3%	45.2%	44.9%
Very much 37a	79a	116
18.4%	24.3%	22.1%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

The Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study (2014) of 17,514 U.S. adult men suggests that religion is more important for the general population: 47% say religion is “very important in their lives,” 26% “somewhat important,” 13% “not too important,” and 14% “not at all important.”

Are sacred scriptures “words directly inspired by God”?

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No, men’s interpretation 64a	156b	220
32.3%	48.1%	42.1%
Yes, inspired by God 96a	127b	223
48.5%	39.2%	42.7%
Not sure 38a	41b	79
19.2%	12.7%	15.1%
198	324	522
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

The Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study asked a similar question, but with differently worded responses: 27% of men believe Scripture is the “Word of God” and should be interpreted literally, 25% believe it is the Word of God, but not always literal, 38% believe it is not the Word of God, but a compilation of legends, history, and moral wisdom, and 9% are unsure.

Belief in evolution vs. Divine Creation of mankind:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Accept Darwin’s theory 46a	105b	151
23.1%	32.4%	28.9%
Believe Biblical Creation 100a	143a	243
50.3%	44.1%	46.5%
Not sure 53a	76a	129
26.6%	23.5%	24.7%
199	324	523
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

The Baylor Religion Survey, Wave 2 (2007) of 752 males in the general population showed 46.1% agreeing with the Darwinian theory of evolution, 39.6% disagreeing, and 14.2% undecided. It showed females more likely to believe in Biblical creationism.

Section 3. Religious Practice as Adults Prior to Arrest.

Attendance of religious services:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 75a	120a	195
37.3%	36.9%	37.1%
Occasionally 89a	113b	202
44.3%	34.8%	38.4%
Often 19a	46a	65
9.5%	14.2%	12.4%
Weekly 18a	46a	64
9.0%	14.2%	12.2%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

The Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study of adult men in the general population shows 31% attending services weekly or more, 33% once or twice a month to a few times a year, and 35% seldom or never.

Frequency of prayer:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 66a	108a	174
32.8%	33.2%	33.1%
Sometimes 85a	128a	213
42.3%	39.4%	40.5%
Frequently 32a	59a	91
15.9%	18.2%	17.3%
Every day 18a	30a	48
9.0%	9.2%	9.1%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

The Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study reveals that 46% of adult males in the general population claim to pray daily, 16% weekly, 7% monthly, 30% seldom or never.

Reading of Scripture and other religious literature:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 71a	136a	207
35.9%	42.0%	39.7%
Sometimes 91a	129a	220
46.0%	39.8%	42.1%
Frequently 26a	42a	68
13.1%	13.0%	13.0%
Every day 10a	17a	27
5.1%	5.2%	5.2%
198	324	522
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to the Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study, 30% of adult men read Scripture at least once a week (comparable to our categories of Frequently and Every Day), 10% once or twice a month, 9% several times a year, 50% seldom or never. It should be noted that participants in a prison book program are disposed to be readers, so the lower figure in the “Never” category may reflect less inclination to reading on the part of the general public. More significant are the lower figures for the Frequently and Every Day categories.

Willingness to volunteer in religious settings:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Never 121a	179a	300
61.1%	55.8%	57.8%
Sometimes 61a	88a	149
30.8%	27.4%	28.7%
Frequently 16a	54b	70
8.1%	16.8%	13.5%
198	321	519
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to the Faith Matters Survey (2006), of 775 adult males, 46.2% said they had volunteered for their church or religious group at least once in the last twelve months.

This comes very close to the 44.2% figure for sex offenders in the Sometimes and Frequently categories.

Section 4. Religious Belief While Incarcerated.

Importance of religious faith now:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Not at all 34a	64a	98
16.9%	19.7%	18.6%
Somewhat 58a	76a	134
28.9%	23.4%	25.5%
Very much 109a	185a	294
54.2%	56.9%	55.9%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

As noted before, the Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study (2014) gives us information about adult men in the general population: 47% say religion is “very important in their lives,” 26% “somewhat important,” 13% “not too important,” and 14% “not at all important.” It therefore appears that an even higher percentage of prisoners, once incarcerated, see religion as playing a very important role in their lives.

Identify as “Born Again”:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No 90a	163a	253
45.0%	50.2%	48.2%
Yes 110a	162a	272
55.0%	49.8%	51.8%
200	325	525
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

The General Social Survey (2014) posed this question to 1764 adult males, of whom 32.3% reported a “born again” experience, 66.0% not, the rest unsure or not answering.

Change in religious faith since incarceration:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No change 40a	60a	100
20.3%	18.8%	19.3%
Grown weaker 22a	34a	56
11.2%	10.6%	10.8%
Grown stronger 82a	129a	211
41.6%	40.3%	40.8%
Converted to new religion 53a	97a	150
26.9%	30.3%	29.0%
197	320	517
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Belief that faith will make oneself a better person:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No 35a	67a	102
18.0%	21.5%	20.2%
Yes 159a	245a	404
82.0%	78.5%	79.8%
194	312	506
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Section 5. Beliefs About Eternal Punishment in the Afterlife.

Belief in Hell as a child:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No 43a	90a	133
21.5%	27.7%	25.3%
Yes 157a	235a	392
78.5%	72.3%	74.7%
200	325	525
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Belief in Hell as an adult, prior to incarceration:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No 54a	133b	187
27.1%	41.0%	35.8%
Yes 145a	191b	336
72.9%	59.0%	64.2%
199	324	523
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to the Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study, 56% of adult men in the general population believe in Hell, 36% don’t, and 8% are unsure.

Do you now believe you are at serious risk of going to Hell?

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No 137a	261b	398
68.8%	80.6%	76.1%
Yes 62a	63b	125
31.2%	19.4%	23.9%
199	324	523
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Belief in a “loving God who forgives most sinners, even if they do bad things”:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No 63a	113a	176
31.7%	34.9%	33.7%
Yes 136a	211a	347
68.3%	65.1%	66.3%
199	324	523
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Section 6. Denominational Information.

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
No religious upbringing 24	40	64
11.9%	12.3%	12.2%
Raised Protestant 125	183	308
62.2%	56.3%	58.6%
Raised Catholic 29	75	104
14.4%	23.1%	19.8%
Raised Eastern Orthodox 2	0	2
1.0%	0.0%	0.4%
Raised Mormon 4	3	7
2.0%	0.9%	1.3%
Raised Jewish 8	14	22
4.0%	4.3%	4.2%
Raised Buddhist 0	2	2
0.0%	0.6%	0.4%
Raised Pagan/New Age 2	3	5
1.0%	0.9%	1.0%
Other 7	5	12
3.5%	1.5%	2.3%
201	325	526
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Among those who identified a Protestant upbringing, we found the following breakdown:

crime, SO’s vs. rest		Total
not SO	SO	Total
Baptist 70	82	152
57.4%	44.1%	49.4%
Pentecostal 13	19	32
10.7%	10.2%	10.4%
Methodist 6	16	22
4.9%	8.6%	7.1%
Presbyterian 3	7	10
2.5%	3.8%	3.2%
Episcopalian 2	3	5
1.6%	1.6%	1.6%
Lutheran 3	16	19
2.5%	8.6%	6.2%
Church of Christ 6	13	19
4.9%	7.0%	6.2%
Adventist 2	5	7
1.6%	2.7%	2.3%
Christian Science 3	2	5
2.5%	1.1%	1.6%
Jehovah’s Witness 7	4	11
5.7%	2.2%	3.6%
Other/Multiple 7	19	26
5.7%	10.2%	8.4%
122	186	308
100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to the Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study, 20.8% of the US population identifies as Roman Catholic, 46.4% as some version of Protestant, 3.3% as some other type of Christian (e.g. Mormon, Orthodox, Jehovah’s Witness), 1.9% as Jewish, 4.1% other non-Christian, and 22.8% as unaffiliated. This study did not break down the Protestant denominations as precisely as we did, but into three categories: mainline Protestant (14.7%), evangelical Protestant (25.4%), and black Protestant (6.5%).

Survey Instrument

Please identify the offense category for which you are currently incarcerated.

1 = murder/manslaughter. 2 = sex offense. 3 = other violent crime. 4 = property crime. 5 = drugs or DWI. 6 = financial or white-collar crime. 7 = other. Please specify.

What was the religious faith tradition of your family when you were growing up?

0 = none. 1 = Protestant. 2 = Roman Catholic. 3 = Eastern Orthodox. 4 = Mormon. 5 = Jewish. 6 = Islamic. 7 = Buddhist. 8 = Hindu/Sikh/Jain. 9 = Pagan/Wicca/New Age. 10 = Other. Please specify on the answer form.

If you answered 1 to the last question, which denomination did your family choose?

1 = Baptist. 2 = Pentecostal. 3 = Methodist. 4 = Presbyterian. 5 = Episcopal/Anglican. 6 = Lutheran. 7 = Church of Christ. 8 = Seventh Day Adventist. 9 = Christian Science. 10 = Jehovah’s Witness. 11 = other, or a variety of different churches. Please specify.

How often did you attend worship services with your family when you were a child?

0 = never. 1 = occasionally. 2 = often. 3 = at least once a week.

How important was your religious faith to you when you were a child?

0 = not at all. 1 = somewhat. 2 = very much.

Did your family pray together at meals when you were a child?

0 = No. 1 = sometimes. 2 = frequently. 3 = every day.

Did you personally pray when you were a child?

0 = No. 1 = sometimes. 2 = frequently. 3 = every day.

As an adult, prior to your incarceration, how often did you attend worship services?

0 = never. 1 = occasionally. 2 = often. 3 = at least once a week.

As an adult, prior to your incarceration, how important was your religious faith to you?

0 = not at all. 1 = somewhat. 2 = very much.

Did you personally pray as an adult, prior to your incarceration?

0 = No. 1 = sometimes. 2 = frequently. 3 = every day.

How important is religious faith to you now?

0 = not at all. 1 = somewhat. 2 = very much.

If you lost your religious faith at some point in your life, at what age did this happen?

For questions 13-17, 0 = No, and 1 = Yes.

Do you now consider yourself “Born Again” or otherwise converted in your faith?

As a child, did you believe in Hell as a place of torment for unrepentant sinners?

As an adult, prior to your incarceration, did you believe in Hell?

Do you now believe you are at serious risk of going to Hell?

As an adult, prior to your incarceration, did you believe in a loving God who forgives most sinners, even if they sometimes do very bad things?

Which position best describes your beliefs about the origin of mankind and animals?

1 = I believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution: animal species, including humans, developed from other species. 2 = I believe that every species was created in the form it now has by divine will. 3 = I am not sure.

If you were religious as an adult prior to your incarceration, did you believe that sacred scriptures are words directly inspired by God?

0 = No, I believe they were men’s interpretation of God’s will. 1 = Yes. 2 = I am not sure.

If you were religious as an adult prior to your incarceration, did you regularly read the Bible or other religious literature?

0 = Never. 1 = Sometimes. 2 = Frequently. 3 = Every day.

Did one of your parents regularly read the Bible or other religious literature?

0 = Never. 1 = Sometimes. 2 = Frequently. 3 = Every day.

Did religion influence your parents’ attitudes toward sexual morality?

0 = Not at all. 1 = Somewhat. 2 = Very much.

Did you struggle with your sexuality as an adolescent because of your or your parents’ religious faith?

0 = Not at all. 1 = Somewhat. 2 = Very much.

Did you struggle with your sexuality as an adult because of your religious faith?

0 = Not at all. 1 = Somewhat. 2 = Very much.

If you were religious as an adult prior to your incarceration, did you perform volunteer work on behalf of your church or faith community?

0 = Never. 1 = Sometimes. 2 = Frequently.

Has your religious faith changed since you were incarcerated?

0 = No change. 1 = It has grown weaker. 2 = It has grown stronger. 3 = I have converted to a completely new religion.

Do you believe that your current religious faith will make you a better person?

0 = No. 1 = Yes.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

New on the site

Poet, playwright, editor, and activist, Perry Brass stands as an important and enduring voice emerging from the American gay liberation movement. The William A. Percy Foundation is pleased to announce author and activist Perry Brass as recipient of its 2025 Charley Shively Prize for Gay Liberation.

So intense is the public hysteria over sexual threats to children that the usual standards of evidence are often pushed aside: innocent men and women are sentenced to decades in prison based on dubious "recovered memories," sensational charges of Satanic cults, children manipulated by a vindictive former spouse in a custody dispute, untrained therapists who bully kids with repeated leading questions, neurotic moms with vivid fantasies about their child's day care, prosecutors who suppress exculpatory evidence, etc. The recently dissolved National Center for Reason and Justice was one of the few entities that fought for exoneration in these cases. Read this history by its Executive Director, along with a catalogue of the cases they championed, linked to descriptions of each one. A Brief History of the National Center for Reason and Justice.

What does it say about a nation’s moral compass when baiting, harassing, and often assaulting unsuspecting people becomes both a form of entertainment and a display of one’s own virtue? Sandy Rozek, communications director of NARSOL, raises this question in this short article on the rise of online predation by Chris Hansen copycats: The New Vigilantism.

Discussions regarding the personal decisions of young people typically try to balance protectionist and libertarian concerns. Yet for the sole issue of gender transitioning, the deeper questions of consent and risk are often chalked off the purview of ultraconservative obstructionists. Read this short editorial for an alternative perspective on whether the current protocols for gender clinics represent the wisest approach.

Recently Dr. Shawn Rolfe presented one of the foundation's forthcoming papers, Bias in Sentencing Men for Sexual Offenses Against Minors, at the National Institute of Justice’s 2024 Research Conference. Read a short summary here.

Congratulations to the winner of our 2024 Warren Johansson Book Award, Bonnie Burkhardt, for her book Manufacturing Criminals, 2nd Edition: Wiretapping and Planting Evidence. Click here to find out more about Burkhardt and her fight in defense of civil liberties.

This November, two heavyweight champions in fear mongering will battle it out for the Oval Office. How do Harris and Trump compare on issues of sexual politics, and who will be the primary casualties in this theomachy? Find out here.

“Hookup culture” has been a talking point in the media for years now, but what actually occurs during these strange college rituals? Bringing together a wealth of data, along with her own observations and original research, sociologist Lisa Wade, in her new book American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus, breaks it down for us. Click here for a review.

Comprehensive sex education—sex education that provides young people with the information they need to make healthy decisions—has a direct impact on reduced rates of teen pregnancy and STD contraction. Does comprehensive sex education also play a role in protecting young people from sexual violence and abuse? Read this short article for some evidence in the affirmative. Comprehensive Sex Education as Sexual Violence/Abuse Prevention? – Some Findings.

Jill Ciment's most recent book, Consent: A Memoir, is a look back at her almost 50-year marriage with her art teacher who she met when she was 17 and he 47. Can Ciment reconcile her love for her late husband with her belief in the vulnerability of young women in the face of predatory older men? Find out here.

DoD signal analyst Bonnie Burkhardt once again exposes the Fourth Amendment violations of the “Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force” (ICAC) in her second edition of Manufacturing Criminals: Wiretapping and Planting Evidence. Will her findings make her the whistleblower of the 21st century? Only if people are willing to hear what she has to say. Read a review, and personal reflection, here.

Hatred of Sex by co-authors Oliver Davis and Tim Dean is a unique account of the paradoxes of sexual pleasure, and why even those who extoll its rewarding qualities are—in some roundabout way—averse to it. Read a summary of Davis and Dean’s heterodoxical argument here.

The William A. Percy Foundation is pleased to announce August Bernadicou as our 2023 Charley Shively Prize for Gay Liberation recipient. Journalist, historian, archivist, Bernadicou has been interviewing lesser known LGBTQ movement veterans since he was 13 years old, collecting the stories of queer writers, performers, activists, artists, thinkers and leaders, from the homophile movement of the 1950s to the AIDS crisis. Find out more about his work here.

Jean M. Twenge’s latest book Generations is a statistic-stuffed panorama of American society through the exploration of five generations over the course of their lives, from the Silents to Generation Z. Read a review here.

Trevor Hoppe & Shantel Gabrieal Buggs’ Unsafe Words: Queering Consent in the #MeToo Era offers an illuminating and important (if occasionally uneven) collection of queer perspectives on consent, giving the debate a much-needed breath of fresh air. Read a review here.

Do the erotic desires of a citizen body and a nation’s strategy for resource distribution operate within the same sphere, or are private intimacies unrelated to public policy? This unique glimpse into the demographic challenges faced by Classical antiquity, and its leaders’ responses, argues that individual yearnings and material circumstances are deeply interconnected and form the volatile core of a nation’s internal logic. Click here to find out how: Toward a Sustainable Ethics of Sexual Liberation: What Ancient Greece Can Teach Modern Progressives

Hugh Ryan is the recipient of the Foundation’s biennial Warren Johansson Book Award for his 2022 The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison

Downstate is a play about a day in the life of four men living in a halfway house, each with a conviction for a sex offense involving minors. Yet Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Bruce Norris has won rave reviews questioning ‘What is too much?’ when it comes to punishing these crimes. Is Downstate an inflection point in public discourse about criminal justice? Click here for a review.

Two claims which can be decisively made about today’s teens and young adults – singling out this birth cohort from the ones that came before: young people today are experiencing significantly higher rates of unhappiness and mental illness, and they are also exhibiting a unique lack of sexual activity. Read a provocative deep dive into the reasons. Why Are Young People So Unhappy? – Mental Health, Sexual Development, Loss of Autonomy.

James Kirchick’s Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington gives the most complete history to date of gay and bisexual people, mostly male and deeply closeted, in the nation’s capital. These include elected politicians, high-ranking political appointees, prominent journalists, socialites, as well as scores of minor civil servants and even a few fringe non-political figures like the local pornographer Lynn Womack, who won a major victory for artistic freedom in the Supreme Court in 1962. Read a review here.

Allyn Walker’s 2021 A Long Dark Shadow led to a firestorm of controversy, stoked by the right and tabloid media. Within months of publication, the book led to the author’s ouster from a teaching post at Virginia’s Old Dominion University and recoil from scholars worried about academic freedom. But has the fairly conservative content of Walker’s book been overlooked amidst all the hubbub? Read a review here.

Hellfire Does Not Deter Crime: Prisoner Survey on Religion – In 2021, the Percy Foundation distributed questionnaires on religious beliefs and practice to the prisoners enrolled in its prison book program. A total of 526 questionnaires were returned to us. Our inquiry aimed to ascertain whether strong religiosity either in childhood upbringing or as adults prior to incarceration acts as a deterrent or risk factor in criminal propensity. Read more here.

Maia Kobabe’s Stonewall Book Award-winning graphic novel Gender Queer has been savaged by conservatives as targeting vulnerable youngsters with pornography and grooming them for a life of sexual deviance. Yet Kobabe’s message curiously accords with what the social conservatives themselves want for adolescents: no acknowledgment of pubertal changes, no sex, no gender reassignment, nothing but a state of suspended animation in pre-lapserian innocence. Whither the paradox? Read a review here.

The Significance of Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court argues her historical importance is not only as the first African-American woman on the high court, but as the only current member of the court with a background in criminal justice.

News and Resources

Ryan Conrad tapped as 2021 Charley Shively Prize winner – Canadian-based scholar, polemicist, and artist Ryan Conrad is recipient of the Foundation’s 2021 Charley Shively Prize for Gay Liberation. A co-founder of the publishing collective Against Equality, Conrad is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Toronto’s York University, writing on the history of grassroots Canadian AIDS videomaking. Conrad’s wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary work – on topics such as the relation of sexual minorities to mass incarceration and the straitjacket of “equality” as a holy grail for sexual politics – shows both a searching and uncompromising concern with justice and an unquenchable joie de vivre at the utopian potentials of erotic community. READ MORE HERE ...

Guest editorials – The Foundation is happy to post guest opinion pieces or reviews of notable books on topics of sexual diversity, rights, law, and history written by qualified scholars, activists, or those who have had contact with the criminal justice system. READ MORE HERE ...

Voluntary sexual relations among prisoners – Skewing male and young, and cut off from relationships and sexual outlets outside, prisoners frequently engage each other in sexual activity. In the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, voluntary sexual relationships are officially forbidden, with those caught often facing severe discipline. But prison administrators also sometimes respond with varying degrees of realism about sex among prisoners. What are the alternatives to prohibition? The articles and anecdotes here discuss the issues involved and offer data on this hard-to-assess and variable phenomenon. READ MORE HERE ...

Prison sex & prison rape – A literature review, covering consensual sex, sexual victimization, conjugal visitation, and more! READ MORE HERE ...

Do illegal images encourage child molestation? – Mere possession of child pornography (which includes images to fully sexually mature adolescents) is one of the most rapidly growing offenses prosecuted in the U.S. federal system, earning those convicted an average sentence of 12.5 years (according to Department of Justice statistics). Often, the images in question are old and feature mere nudity, little different from what is found in naturist literature and legitimate art photography. In this brief, a well-known criminologist and expert witness reviews the most recent scholarship on the question, and concludes that there is no credible link between viewing such images and committing hands-on offenses against minors. READ MORE HERE ...

Criminalization of sex workers – or their clients – both violates individual rights and prevents prostitutes and other sex workers from the regulation that has been shown to keep the "oldest profession" safe and offering a living wage. The equation of sex work with "human trafficking" – a concept heavily promoted by Western governments and NGOs but little analyzed – serves to strip sex workers of any volition and presents them as pure victims. The result in recent years has been an intensified regime of surveillance of migrants, travelers generally, sex workers, and customers – as well as large upticks in punishments in the U.S. for completely consensual activities. Sex workers and their allies around the world are organizing to fight for reasonable regulation and legal protection. READ MORE HERE ...

Transgender people face police abuse – While trans issues in the West are prominent in popular consciousness like never before, and legal barriers to fair treatment are tending to fall, police harassment and disregard, together with high levels of criminal victimization, continue. These articles offer an overview. READ MORE HERE ...

Over-the-counter contraception & youth rights – Access to contraception is a fundamental aspect of young persons' ability to make their own sexual choices. The recent articles discussed here present the scope of the problem of inaccessibility of female contraception in the U.S., E.U., and beyond, and as well, the shifting political debates and medical developments touching on the issue. READ MORE HERE ...

Battles over sex-ed – Research shows that giving young people the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions about sexuality leads to better choices, reducing unwanted pregnancies and risk of disease, while opening up space for vital discussions about feelings, relationships, and the range of human sexual responses. With a bias toward abstinence-ed in the U.S., the benefits of sex-ed often are not realized, and GLBT youth are often left out of the picture. The articles here offer an overview. READ MORE HERE ...

Mass incarceration – The U.S. represents 4.4% of the world population, but 22% of its prisoners. Unjust sentences for victimless or merely statutory offenses are a key part of the problem, together with racism and moralism about drugs and sex. Inmates face high levels of physical and sexual assault, and targets are often transgender people and others with disparaged sexual identities. READ MORE HERE ...

Fighting civil commitment – Some 7,000 individuals languish in locked facilities in the U.S. because of Kafka-esque statutes allowing indefinite detention (sex offense civil commitment) when the government has nothing more than a hunch you might in the future do something wrong of a sexual nature. Only a very small number have ever been released, even though the earliest of these facilities have existed as long as 28 years. In at least some states, more have died than have been released. In order to detain an individual for as much as the rest of their lives, the state need not prove any mental illness, only a potentially undefined mental "disorder" or a completely limitless, undefined "mental abnormality." Those who are civilly committed are, according to the Supreme Court, not being "punished," though these detention centers are usually no more than prisons, both in architecture and secured perimeters, and also in operating methods and restrictions and requirements of those confined. In a remarkable series of newsletters, The Legal Pad, a civilly-committed former attorney looks at the legal and social consequences of America's growing extra-legal gulag system. READ MORE HERE ...

Sexual minorities face more violence in prison – Incarceration tends to intensify forms of inequality and injustice prevalent in society. So it's no surprise that sexual and gender minorities often face higher rates of violence and maltreatment in jails and prisons. What's known and how are prisoners and allies taking action? READ MORE HERE ...

Fears about young people's sexuality hinder HPV vaccination efforts – HPV vaccine protects against cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection – a common virus. About one in four people in the U.S. is infected, and some 14 million new infections every year. Encouraging vaccinations among young people is a public health priority, and over time could prevent more than 30,000 U.S. cancer cases a year. But vaccination campaigns face serious resistance and vaccination rates are lower than they should be. What's the problem? READ MORE HERE ...

Book reviews and commentary – What University of Michigan gay scholar David Halperin calls the “War on Sex” is generating more and more critical analysis. READ MORE HERE ...

Learning from History: Lessons for activism today – The GLBT movement has been one of the most successful social movements in the West in recent generations. Yet the struggle to fight sexual injustices and hysterias – now in new guises – seems greater than ever. READ MORE HERE ...