Religious Identification and Adolescent Delinquency: Comparing Muslim, Christian, and Non-Religious Youth in the United Kingdom.

• In Event: Religious Identification, Institutions, and Civil Society

Abstract

Though most scholars agree that religious identification is associated with lowered crime and delinquency, less consensus exists regarding the mechanisms through which religion reduces deviant behavior, and few studies have compared these mechanisms between different religions within the same national context. In the present study, I compare the adolescent delinquency associated with Muslim, Christian, and non-religious identification in the United Kingdom, and I investigate theoretically relevant processes which may account for a different incidence of delinquency across the three groups. Data are from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a nationally representative, prospective survey of youth in the United Kingdom who were born between September 2000 and January 2002. I use logistic regression to estimate associations between delinquency and religious identification. Mediation is assessed using KHB analysis. Results show that non-religious identification is associated with the highest delinquency, followed by Christian (religious majority) identity, with Muslim (religious minority) identity associated with the lowest delinquency. Salient mediators include a variety of factors measured across the children’s lives, offering support for multiple criminological perspectives.

Author

• Christopher H. Seto, Pennsylvania State University