Taking the Conservative Protestant Thesis across the Atlantic: Violence and Religion in Rural Netherlands.

• In Event: 082 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 02. Criminology/Deviance

Abstract

This is the first study that offers large-scale comparative rural-urban analyses of the relationships between violence, alcohol and religion in Europe. Building upon the Southern Culture of Violence tradition of US research, the article applies the Conservative Protestant thesis to inquire whether the association between rural violence and this type of religion also appears in the Dutch context. Based on data of 8,106 individuals aged 15 to 30 years old, the analyses indicate that young rural Conservative Protestants living in villages were more likely to report that they had committed violence, notably as compared to their fellow believers living elsewhere in the country. Hence, this study shows that the relationship between Conservative Protestantism and violence depends on the place where youths live. Furthermore, it turned out that the association between alcohol consumption and violence is stronger among this category of religious rural youth in particular. More generally, this study provides further evidence of distinct rural alcohol consumption patterns, which are related to additional rural violence. Finally, this study demonstrates that, contrary to the prevailing notion of the idyllic rural, the violence rates between young Dutch rural dwellers and their peers living in the rest of the country are virtually similar.

Author

• Don Weenink, University of Amsterdam