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HELLFIRE AND CORRECTIONS: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF FLORIDA PRISON INMATES (RELIGIOSITY, CRIME)

A host of studies have examined the religiosity-deviance relationship in a variety of ways. Various measures of religiosity and deviance have been utilized in many different settings to determine the relationship between religious commitment and deviance. These studies essentially attempted to discover the degree to which religiosity acts as a social control mechanism in preventing delinquency and criminal activity. / The present research takes two areas that have been neglected in the religiosity-deviance literature as points of departure. The first area by-passed by scholars in the study of religious commitment as a means of rehabilitation. The second area overlooked by researchers is the study of religious commitment among prison inmates. Social control theory provides the theoretical rationale in which these two neglected areas are examined. / Several methodological shortcomings in the religiosity-deviance literature are addressed in the present research through the construction of religiosity indexes and the use of path analysis. This is done in an effort to more accurately measure religiosity. / This study examines data collected on the inmate population (n=782) released from 1978 through 1982 at the Apalachee Correctional Institution (ACI), in Chattahoochee, Florida. Religious variables, religiosity indexes, and institutional adjustment indexes, represent the three sets of variables scrutinized in the analysis in order to determine the impact of religiosity upon institutional adjustment of prison inmates. / The findings indicate that those inmates exhibiting the greatest degree of religious commitment are no more likely to attend institutional church services or activities than inmates exhibiting little or no religious commitment. More importantly, religiosity of prison inmates does not have a statistically significant impact upon their institutional adjustment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-01, Section: A, page: 0269. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75479
ContributorsJOHNSON, BYRON ROGER., Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText
Format220 p.
RightsOn campus use only.
RelationDissertation Abstracts International

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