ABSTRACT

Although previous research suggests that many dimensions of religion (e.g., religious service attendance, importance of religion) are significantly related to juvenile delinquency and substance use, fewer studies have examined the relationship between religiosity and adult crime, particularly white-collar crimes. Based on Wave 4 of the Baylor Religion Survey, we used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to determine if religiosity reduces occupational crime and deviance due to feelings of work as a vocational calling which we hypothesized would increase job satisfaction and affective commitment to work. We find that people who attend religious services more frequently are significantly less likely to engage In occupational crime and deviance, but importance of religion is not significantly related to occupational crime or deviance. Contrary to our expectations, vocational calling, job satisfaction, and affective commitment do not explain the relationship between religious service attendance and occupational crime and deviance. Our research suggests future research is warranted to better understand the relationship between religion and adult crime, particularly white-collar crime, and the possible mediating factors that may explain this relationship.

摘要

尽管之前的研究表明，宗教的许多方面（例如，参加宗教仪式、宗教的重要性）与青少年犯罪和药物滥用显着相关，但很少有研究探讨宗教信仰与成人犯罪（尤其是白领犯罪）之间的关系。基于贝勒宗教调查的第 4 波，我们使用普通最小二乘法 (OLS) 回归来确定宗教信仰是否会减少职业犯罪和偏差，因为我们假设将工作作为一种职业召唤的感觉会提高工作满意度和对工作的情感承诺。我们发现，更频繁地参加宗教仪式的人从事职业犯罪和越轨行为的可能性明显降低，但宗教的重要性与职业犯罪或越轨行为没有显着相关性。与我们的预期相反，职业召唤、工作满意度和情感承诺并不能解释宗教服务出席率与职业犯罪和越轨行为之间的关系。我们的研究表明，未来的研究有必要更好地了解宗教与成人犯罪（尤其是白领犯罪）之间的关系，以及可能解释这种关系的可能中介因素。