Religious Cosmologies and Homicide Rates among Nations

Although religion has been viewed as playing an important role in the maintenance of moral order, the most recent analysis of variation in homicide rates among nations argues that homicide is facilitated by high levels of religiosity (Paul). That analysis, however, was based on scatter-plots for eighteen “prosperous nations” and focused primarily on the United States compared to “secular” nations. Because there are numerous dimensions to religiosity and a variety of alternative explanations of homicide rates, a more complex analysis is required before more definitive conclusions can be reached. This study attempts such an analysis for a much larger sample of nations and tests Durkheim’s hypotheses that religious passion, as a variable characteristic of nations, is a positive correlate of homicide rates. A multiple regression analysis reveals a complex relationship with some dimensions of religiosity encouraging homicide and other dimensions discouraging it. The relationships found not only survive controls for variables proposed in prior research, but also suggest major modifications to theories focusing on economic variables as characteristics of nations. Introduction [1] Any thorough attempt to assess the role of religion in relation to violence will encounter two conflicting themes. On the one hand, religious institutions, beliefs, and practices are commonly depicted as discouraging crime, either directly or indirectly through links with other social forces. The two sociologists who have written the most about religion and deviance, Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, argue that church attendance contributes to moral integration and, thus, inhibits a wide range of forms of deviance. In fact, Bainbridge and Stark propose that the preventative effect of religiosity is one of the few general propositions in the sociology of deviance that applies at both the individual and the collective level. Indeed, a meta-analysis of research on religion and crime concluded, “religious behaviors and beliefs exert a moderate deterrent effect on individuals’ criminal behavior” (Baier and Wright: 3). Stark and Bainbridge propose the same conclusion, but argue that it applies at both the individual and ecological level. [2] In contrast to the preventative argument, some dimensions of religiosity have been proposed as sources of violence in one form or another. Religious zeal has been cited as a source of national and international problems, ranging from homicide, hate crime, and terrorism to genocide and ethnic cleansing. Reflecting upon When Religion Becomes Evil, Charles Kimball proposes that religious belief systems tend to become destructive when they are characterized by absolute truth claims, notions of a cosmic struggle between God and the Devil (cosmic dualism), and rigid dichotomies between good 1 The author is grateful for support and encouragement for this project from the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at Vanderbilt University, Volney Gay and Douglas Knight, Directors.