Article: A Life-Course Perspective On Spirituality And Desistance From Crime. Criminology, Feb 2008
Summary: Many drug and alcohol treatment programs, as well as prison rehabilitation programs, are centered on the healing power of spirituality. Yet sociologists studying the life course usually emphasize the impact of other factors on delinquency, such as “marital attachment and job stability, or the criminality of the individual’s social ties. ” In this study, the authors follow over 150 people for 21 years to see what factors have the most influence on their criminality and find that religious belief and commitment had very little effect on criminal behavior.