Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts

Major

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Date of Defense

4-18-2019

Graduate Advisor

Elaine Doherty

Committee

Elaine Doherty

Rachel Ellis

Kyle Thomas

Abstract

After Hirschi and Stark’s Hellfire and Delinquency (1969), researchers have been seeking to determine whether there is a correlational link between religion and crime. This paper seeks to add to the literature by correlating domestic violence with four elements of religion (use of belief to solve everyday problems, prayer frequency, religious importance, and attendance of worship) that correspond with the four elements of Hirschi’s social control theory (attachment, commitment, belief, and involvement, respectively) (1969). It also includes male victims of domestic violence among female victims, unlike most previous literature. Using a series of logistic regression models, only attendance of worship, the variable that signified involvement, had statistical significance in any model, which may signify the need to focus more on the behavioral measures of social control theory rather than the attitudinal measures.

OCLC Number

1105631200

Included in

Criminology Commons

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