Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Religious Involvement, Moral Community and Social Ecology: New Considerations in the Study of Religion and Reentry

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Quantitative Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

To examine the link between an individual’s religious involvement in prison and recidivism and assess how macro-level conditions in the counties to which individuals return shape this relationship.

Methods

Using data from 1362 previously incarcerated people, a series of hierarchical generalized linear models are used to examine the extent to which an individual’s religious involvement in prison relates to recidivism post-release. We also examine how county-level religious adherence, economic disadvantage, and potential social service assistance directly affect recidivism, and how each shape the relationship between religious involvement and recidivism.

Results

Findings show that county-level religious adherence was directly associated with lower recidivism, but individual-level religious involvement was not when assessing recidivism over longer periods of time post-release. Cross-level interactions revealed that county-level resource deprivation conditions the effect of individual religious involvement.

Conclusions

Findings have theoretical implications for the study of religion and reentry. Methodologically, failing to account for the religious context of counties, in addition to micro–macro linkages, harms individual level research on religion and reentry.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Almost 80% of the volunteers in Oregon consider themselves to be primarily religious or spiritual volunteers. Thus, most of the events organized by these persons are religious or spiritual in nature, however several humanist services are also provided for people of all and no faiths, including meditation, nonviolent communication groups, and social study groups. Participation in HSR services is available to any individual in prison, regardless of religious affiliation or spirituality. Although prior research has found that a person’s precise religious or spiritual way of identifying may be associated with different protective benefits (Jang and Franzen 2013), we suggest that any programming matching the way a person makes meaning in their life has similar value in terms of developing a sense of hope, belonging, and support (e.g. Worthington et al. 2011).

  2. Although our sample included persons from each of Oregon’s 33 counties, we also reestimated all models using a mixed-effects restricted maximum likelihood estimation using the kroger method for small-sample inference. Results were almost identical to those presented in the manuscript, giving more reassurance that our results are not biased downwards by our cluster n.

References

  • Adamczyk A (2008) The effects of religious contextual norms, structural constraints, and personal religiosity on abortion decisions. Soc Sci Res 37:657–672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adamczyk A (2012) Understanding delinquency with friendship group religious context. Soc Sci Q 93:482–505

    Google Scholar 

  • Adamczyk A, Palmer I (2008) Religion and initiation into marijuana use: the deterring role of religious friends. J Drug Issues 38:717–742

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adamczyk A, Freilich J, Kim C (2017) Religion and crime: a systematic review and assessment of next steps. Sociol Relig 78(2):192–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agnew R (2001) Building on the foundation of general strain theory: specifying the types of strain most likely to lead to crime and delinquency. J Res Crime Delinq 38:319–361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aranda MP (2008) Relationship between religious involvement and psychological well-being: a social justice perspective. Health Soc Work 33:9–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bales WD, Mears DP (2008) Inmate social ties and the transition to society: Does visitation reduce recidivism? J Res Crime Delinq 45(3):287–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg MT, Huebner BM (2011) Reentry and the ties that bind: an examination of social ties, employment, and recidivism. Justice Q 28(2):382–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohmert MN, Duwe G, Hipple NK (2016) Evaluating restorative justice circles of support and accountability: Can social support overcome structural barriers? Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x16652627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boman IV JH, Mowen TJ (2017) Building the ties that bind, breaking the ties that don’t: family support, criminal peers, and reentry success. Criminol Public Policy 16(3):753–774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borgonovi F (2008) Divided we stand, united we fall: religious pluralism, giving, and volunteering. Am Sociol Rev 73:105–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown G (2010) The intersectionality of race, gender, and reentry. American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017) Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Caudill JW, Trulson CR (2016) The hazards of premature release: recidivism outcomes of blended-sentenced juvenile homicide offenders. J Crim Justice 46:219–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clear TR, Hardyman PL, Stout B, Lucken K, Dammer H (2000) The value of religion in prison: an inmate perspective. J Contemp Crim Justice 16:53–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cochran JC (2014) Breaches in the wall: imprisonment, social support, and recidivism. J Res Crime Delinq 51:200–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cochran J, Mears DP, Bales W, Stewart EA (2014) Does inmate behavior affect post-release offending? Investigating the misconduct-recidivism relationship among youth and adults. Justice Q 31:1044–1073

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Castella R, Simmonds JG (2013) “There’s a deeper level of meaning as to what suffering’s all about”: experiences of religious and spiritual growth following trauma. Ment Health Relig Cult 16(5):536–556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dominey J, Lowson E (2017) Community chaplaincy and desistance: seeing a new future. Centre for Community, Gender and Social Justice, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim E [1897] (1951) Suicide: a study in sociology. Free Press: New York

  • Duwe G, Clark V (2013) Blessed be the social tie that binds: the effects of prison visitation on offender recidivism. Crim Justice Policy Rev 24(3):271–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duwe G, Clark V (2017) The rehabilitative ideal versus the criminogenic reality: the consequences of warehousing prisoners. Corrections 2:41–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duwe G, Johnson BR (2016) The effects of prison visits from community volunteers on offender recidivism. Prison J 96:279–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duwe G, King M (2013) Can faith-based correctional programs work? An outcome evaluation of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Minnesota. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol 57:813–841

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyreng S, Mayew W, Williams C (2012) Religious social norms and corporate financial reporting. J Bus Finance Account 39:845–875

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Exline JJ, Rose E (2005) Religious and spiritual struggles. Psycholog Relig Spiritual 2:380–398

    Google Scholar 

  • Finke R, Adamczyk A (2008) Cross-national moral beliefs: the influence of national religious context. Sociol Q 49:617–652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giordano P, Longmore M, Schroeder R, Seffin P (2008) A life-course perspective on spirituality and desistance from crime. Criminology 46:99–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grammich CA (2012) 2010 US religion census: religious congregations & membership study: an enumeration by nation, state, and county based on data reported for 236 religious groups. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies

  • Green D (2013) Penal optimism and second chances: the legacies of American Protestantism and the prospects for penal reform. Punishm Soc 15:123–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hallett M, McCoy JS (2015) Religiously motivated desistance: an exploratory study. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol 59(8):855–872

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hallett M, Hays J, Johnson BR, Jang SJ, Duwe G (2017) The Angola prison seminary: effects of faith-based ministry on identity transformation, desistance, and rehabilitation. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris CT, Ulmer JT (2017) “Mighty like a river”: the black protestant church and violence in black communities. Sociol Q 58:295–314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henning R, Renauer B, Feyerherm B (2013) Risk assessment and the public safety checklist. Portland State University, Portland

    Google Scholar 

  • Hipp J, Jannetta J, Shah R, Turner S (2008) Parolees’ physical closeness to social services: a study of California parolees. Crime Delinq 57:102–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hipp J, Jannetta J, Shah R, Turner S (2009) Parolees’ physical closeness to health service providers: a study of California parolees. Health Place 15:679–688

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hipp J, Petersilia J, Turner S (2010) Parolee recidivism in California: the effect of neighborhood context and social service agency characteristics. Criminology 48(4):947–979

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huebner BM, DeJong C, Cobbina J (2010) Women coming home: long-term patterns of recidivism. Justice Q 27:225–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingersoll-Dayton B, Krause N, Morgan D (2002) Religious trajectories and transitions over the life course. Int J Aging Hum Dev 55(1):51–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jang SJ, Franzen AB (2013) Is being “spiritual” enough without being religious? A study of violent and property crimes among emerging adults. Criminology 51:595–627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jang SJ, Johnson BR, Hays J, Hallett M, Duwe G (2017) Religion and misconduct in “Angola” prison: conversion, congregational participation, religiosity, and self-identities. Justice Q. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2017.1309057

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson B (2004) Religious programs and recidivism among former inmates in prison fellowship programs: a long-term follow-up study. Justice Q 21:329–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson B (2011) More god, less crime: why faith matters and how it could matter more. Templeton Foundation Press, Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson BR, Larson DB, Pitts TC (1997) Religious programs, institutional adjustment, and recidivism among former inmates in prison fellowship programs. Justice Q 14(1):145–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kececioglu D (1993) Reliability and life testing handbook. Prentice Hall, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerley KR, Copes H, Linn AJ, Eason L, Nguyen MH, Stone AM (2011) Understanding personal change in a women’s faith-based transitional center. Religions 2:184–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kubrin C, Stewart E (2006) Predicting who reoffends: the neglected role of neighborhood context in recidivism studies. Criminology 44:165–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurlychek M, Bushway S, Brame R (2012) Long-term crime desistance and recidivism patterns: evidence from the Essex County convicted felon study. Criminology 50:71–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee MR, Bartkowski JP (2004) Love thy neighbor? Moral communities, civic engagement, and juvenile homicide in rural areas. Soc Forces 82:1001–1035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee MR, Ousey GC (2005) Institutional access, residential segregation, and urban black homicide. Sociol Inq 75:31–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee MR, Thomas SA (2010) Civic community, population change, and violent crime in rural communities. J Res Crime Delinq 47:118–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee MT, Pagano ME, Johnson BR, Post SG (2016) Love and service in adolescent addiction recovery. Alcohol Treat Q 34:197–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longest KC, Uecker JE (2017) Moral communities and sex: the religious influence on young adult sexual behavior and regret. Sociol Perspect. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121417730015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyman M, LoBuglio S (2006) “Whys” and “hows” of measuring jail recidivism. The Urban Institute, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Maruna S, Wilson L, Curran K (2006) Why God is often found behind bars: prison conversions and the crisis of self-narrative. Res Hum Dev 3:161–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marvell TB, Moody CE (1996) Specification problems, police levels, and crime rates. Criminology 34:609–646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsueda RL (2017) The 2016 Sutherland Address: toward an analytical criminology: the micro-macro problem, causal mechanisms, and public policy. Criminology 55:493–519

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCall PL, Parker KF, Macdonald J (2008) The dynamic relationship between homicide rates and social, economic, and political factors from 1970 to 2000. Soc Sci Res 37(3):721–735

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCall PL, Land KC, Dollar CB, Parker KF (2013) The age structure-crime rate relationship: solving a long-standing puzzle. J Quant Criminol 29:167–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mears DP, Wang X, Hay C, Bales WD (2008) Social ecology and recidivism: implications for prisoner reentry. Criminology 46:301–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morenoff JD, Harding D (2014) Incarceration, prisoner reentry, and communities. Annu Rev Sociol 40:411–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mowen TJ, Stansfield R, Boman JH (2017) During, after, or both? Isolating the effect of post-release religious support on recidivism. J Quant Criminol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-017-9366-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mowen TJ, Boman JH, Stanfield R (2018) Uniting needs, responses, and theory during reentry. J Offender Rehabilit 57:222–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norton EE, Wang H, Ai C (2004) Computing interaction effects and standard errors in logit and probit models. Stata J 4:154–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor T, Bogue T (2010) Collaborating with the community, trained volunteers and faith traditions. In: McNeill F, Reyner P, Trotter C (eds) Offender supervision: new directions in theory, research, and practice. Willan Publishing, Milton, pp 301–322

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor T, Duncan J (2011) The sociology of humanist, spiritual and religious practice in prison: supporting responsivity and desistance from crime. Religions 2:590–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor T, Duncan J, Quillard F (2006) Criminology and religion: the shape of an authentic dialogue. Criminol Public Policy 5:559–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pagano ME, Wang AR, Rowles BM, Lee MT, Johnson BR (2015) Social anxiety and peer helping in adolescent addiction treatment. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 39:887–895

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pargament KI, Smith BW, Koenig HG, Perez L (1998) Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. J Sci Study Relig 37:710–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips J (2002) White, black, and Latino homicide rates: Why the difference? Soc Probl 49:349–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Power J, Ritchie MB, Madill D (2014) Faith-based interventions: a systematic review of the literature. Correctional Service of Canada, Ottawa, ON

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabe-Hesketh S, Skrondal A (2012) Multilevel and longitudinal modeling using Stata, 3rd edn. Stata Press, College Station

    Google Scholar 

  • Regnerus M (2003) Moral communities and adolescent delinquency. Sociol Q 44:523–554

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rigsby M (2018) Prison, religion, and conversion: the prisoner’s narrative experience. In: Kerley K (ed) Finding freedom in confinement. Praeger, Santa Barbara, pp 171–195

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW, Earls F (1997) Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science 277(5328):918–924

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savelsberg JJ (2004) Religion, historical contingencies, and institutional conditions of criminal punishment: the German case and beyond. Law Soc Inq 29(2):373–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder RD, Frana JF (2009) Spirituality and religion, emotional coping, and criminal desistance: a qualitative study of men undergoing change. Sociol Spectr 29:718–741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spohn C, Holleran D (2002) The effect of imprisonment on recidivism rates of felony offenders: a focus on drug offenders. Criminology 40(2):329–358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stansfield R (2017) Drawing on religion in the desistance process: paying attention to race and ethnicity. Crim Justice Behav 44:927–945

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stansfield R, Mowen TJ, O’Connor T, Boman JH (2017) The role of religious support in reentry: evidence from the SVORI data. J Res Crime Delinq 54:111–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stark R, Bainbridge WS (1996) Religion, deviance, and social control. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark R, Doyle DP, Kent L (1980) Rediscovering moral communities: church membership and crime. In: Hirschi T (ed) Understanding crime: current theory and research. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, pp 43–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor C (2016) The family’s role in the reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals. Prison J 96:331–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tillyer MS, Vose B (2011) Social ecology, individual risk, and recidivism: a multilevel examination of main and moderating influences. J Crim Justice 39:452–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomczak P, Thompson D (2017) Inclusionary control? Theorizing the effects of penal voluntary organisations’ work. Theor Criminol. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480617733724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uecker JE, Regnerus MD, Vaaler ML (2007) Losing my religion: the social sources of religious decline in early adulthood. Soc Forces 85:1667–1692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ulmer J, Harris CT (2013) Race and the religious contexts of violence: linking religion and white, black, and latino violent crime. Sociol Q 54:610–646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ulmer J, Bader C, Gault M (2008) Do moral communities play a role in criminal sentencing? Evidence from Pennsylvania. Sociol Q 49:737–768

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unnever JD, Cullen FT (2006) Christian fundamentalism and support for capital punishment. J Res Crime Delinq 43:169–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Visher C (2005) Chicago communities and prisoner reentry. The Urban Institute, Washington

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wenzel L, Glanz K, Lerman C (2002) Stress, coping, and health behavior. Health Behav Health Educ 3:210–239

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams R (2018) Marginal effects for continuous variables. https://www3.nd.edu/~rwilliam/stats3/Margins02.pdf. Accessed 23 July 2018

  • Willison JB, Brazzell D, Kim K (2010) Faith-based corrections and reentry programs: advancing a conceptual framework for research and evaluation. Urban Institute, Justice Policy Center, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Worthington EL, Hook JN, Davis DE, McDaniel MA (2011) Religion and spirituality. J Clin Psychol 67:204–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wortmann JH, Park CL, Edmondson D (2011) Trauma and PTSD symptoms: does spiritual struggle mediate the link? Psychol Trauma Theory Res Pract Policy 3:442–452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xie M, Lauritsen JL, Heimer K (2012) Intimate partner violence in the US metropolitan areas: the contextual influences of police and social services. Criminology 50:961–992

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young MC, Gartner J, O’Connor T, Larson D, Wright KN (1995) Long-term recidivism among federal inmates trained as volunteer prison ministers. J Offender Rehabilit 22:97–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Thomas O’Connor and Jeff Duncan from the Oregon Department of Corrections for their assistance on this project. We would also like to thank Dr. Peggy Giordano for her excellent feedback on a prior draft of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers University – Camden, 405-407 Cooper Street, Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    Richard Stansfield

  2. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA

    Thomas J. Mowen

Authors
  1. Richard Stansfield
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas J. Mowen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Stansfield.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 4.

Table 4 Mixed effects proportional hazard models of days to reconviction
Full size table

Appendix 2

See Fig. 2.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Predicted margins of disadvantage in 3 and 8 year follow-up periods

Full size image

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stansfield, R., Mowen, T.J. Religious Involvement, Moral Community and Social Ecology: New Considerations in the Study of Religion and Reentry. J Quant Criminol 35, 493–516 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-018-9394-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-018-9394-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation