More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How It Could Matter More - Softcover

Johnson, Byron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1599473941 ISBN 13: 9781599473949

Verlag: TEMPLETON FOUNDATION PR, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

 

In More God, Less Crime renowned criminologist Byron R. Johnson proves that religion can be a powerful antidote to crime. The book describes how faith communities, congregations, and faith-based organizations are essential in forming partnerships necessary to provide the human and spiritual capital to effectively address crime, offender rehabilitation, and the substantial aftercare problems facing former prisoners. There is scattered research literature on religion and crime but until now, there has never been one publication that systematically and rigorously analyzes what we know from this largely overlooked body of research in a lay-friendly format. The data shows that when compared to current strategies, faith-based approaches to crime prevention bring added value in targeting those factors known to cause crime: poverty, lack of education, and unemployment. In an age of limited fiscal resources, Americans can’t afford a criminal justice system that turns its nose up at volunteer efforts that could not only work better than the abysmal status quo, but also save billions of dollars at the same time. This book provides readers with practical insights and recommendations for a faith-based response that could do just that.

 

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“Johnson fully, carefully, and persuasively reveals the bestkept secret about crime reduction: religion works!” -Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity

There is mounting evidence that increasing religiosity not only reduces crime and delinquency, but it also promotes prosocial behavior. In spite of these findings, experts rarely include the “faith factor” in discussions of possible solutions to crime, drug use, offender treatment, or exprisoners returning to society. This failing can be attributed in equal measure to the secular criminal justice professionals who allow their own anti-religious prejudices to shape their judgments, as well as to the religious volunteers who rely so heavily on their own beliefs that they see no need to validate their work with
actual research. These shortcomings have cost the American public untold damages in both wealth and safety.

In More God, Less Crime renowned criminologist Byron R. Johnson proves that religion can be a powerful antidote to crime. The book describes how faith communities, congregations, and faith-based organizations are essential in forming partnerships necessary to provide the human and spiritual capital to effectively address crime, offender rehabilitation, and the substantial aftercare problems facing former prisoners. There is scattered research literature on religion and crime but until now there has never been one publication that systematically and rigorously analyzes what we know from this largely overlooked body of research in a lay-friendly format. The data shows that when compared to current strategies, faith-based approaches to crime prevention bring added value in targeting those factors known to cause crime: poverty, lack of education, and unemployment. In an age of limited fiscal resources, Americans can’t afford a criminal justice system that turns its nose up at volunteer efforts that could not only work better than the abysmal status quo, but also save billions of dollars at the same time. This book provides readers with practical insights and recommendations for a faith-based response that could do just that.

More God, Less Crime will serve as a roadmap for how the “faith factor” can become a powerful catalyst to mobilize faith-based efforts to more effectively confront the many chronic problems facing the American criminal justice system. It should be required reading not only for those working within this system, but for the everyday people who fill the pews of the more than 380,000 religious congregations across the country as well.

Visit www.moregodlesscrime to find videos, inspiring stories, and a community of concerned citizens, scholars, and professionals.

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More God, Less Crime

Why Faith Matters and How It Could Matter More

By Byron R. Johnson

Templeton Press

Copyright © 2011 Byron R. Johnson
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-59947-394-9

Contents

Foreword, 
Introduction, 
CHAPTER 1 The Last Acceptable Prejudice, 
CHAPTER 2 Preachers Partner with Police to Reduce Gang Violence: The Boston Miracle, 
CHAPTER 3 Children of Prisoners: People of Faith Mentoring Children of Promise, 
CHAPTER 4 The Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and the Violence-Free Zone, 
CHAPTER 5 A Systematic Review of the Literature: 1944 to 2010, 
CHAPTER 6 Can a Faith-Based Prison Reduce Recidivism?, 
CHAPTER 7 Can a Faith-Based Prison Rehabilitate Inmates?, 
CHAPTER 8 Jailhouse Religion, Spiritual Transformation, and Long-Term Change, 
CHAPTER 9 Why Religion Matters, 
CHAPTER 10 Prisoner Reentry and Aftercare, 
CHAPTER 11 Not by Faith Alone: The Need for Intermediaries, 
Acknowledgments, 
Appendixes, 
Notes, 

CHAPTER 1

The Last Acceptable Prejudice

IN AN UNUSUAL but relevant twist, I want to begin this book by sharing in this first chapter a personal experience of mine as a college professor very early in my career. Though I have rarely discussed the experience, it is relevant and informs my predictions regarding the reception—negative and positive—I expect to receive for More God, Less Crime.

I come from a large, close-knit Christian family where faith was paramount and the role of education was highly valued. My father was a college professor, and my mother an elementary school teacher. As long as I can remember, the expectation in our home was that each of my siblings (four sisters and two brothers) and I would not only go to college but also to graduate school. And we did.

After graduating from college in three years with a degree in psychology, I immediately enrolled in graduate school and began working on a master's degree in psychology at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). After completing my first year of graduate studies, I took a job as a parole officer working for the Tennessee Department of Corrections. I enjoyed the work, and I quickly realized that I needed to shift my educational pursuits from psychology to criminology.

My newfound interest in criminal justice caused me to consider entering a second graduate program in criminology at the University of Tennessee–Chattanooga (UTC). I had to quit the probation job in order to enroll as a full-time student at UTC while completing my thesis at MTSU. I would graduate with a master's degree from MTSU and UTC on consecutive weekends in August 1980.

I moved to Tallahassee two weeks later to begin work on a PhD in criminology at Florida State University (FSU). The choice was an easy one for me. FSU is in the same region of the country as my hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee, and the School of Criminology was widely recognized as offering one of the top programs in the country. I quickly stood out among the cohort of graduate students entering the program as someone who was devoutly religious and had a clean-cut image. I got along well with my fellow graduate students and liked the professors whom I would study under for four years. Though I never felt discriminated against because of my faith, it's fair to say that a few faculty eyebrows raised when I selected religion as my substantive area of study within criminology. Why would anyone select religion as an area of research to pursue? No one had selected this area before, and research on the topic was virtually nonexistent. To his credit, my major professor, Dr. Marc Gertz, fully supported my interest in religion, and he agreed that the scarcity of research on religion and crime was reason enough to pursue the topic.

In 1984 I married, completed my dissertation, and received a tenure-track job appointment in criminal justice at the University of Dayton. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching at Dayton, but a heavy teaching load (four courses per semester) made it difficult to make research the priority I knew it needed to be. After teaching for two years I accepted a tenure-track job at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). When I told the dean of Dayton's College of Arts of Sciences, Frank Lazarus, of my job offer at Memphis, he asked if I would consider staying at Dayton, and that he was ready to counter the Memphis offer. I explained that the decision wasn't based on money, but a reduced teaching load and the opportunity to be in a department with a graduate program—factors I was certain would enhance my research productivity. Dean Lazarus indicated he was sad to lose me, stating that while I wasn't of their religious tradition (Dayton is Catholic), I affirmed their tradition and would be sorely missed.

I became a member of the Criminal Justice Department at Memphis in the fall of 1986, and was actively engaged in research, teaching, and service—the three criteria for determining tenure and promotion decisions. Although these three activities are theoretically equal, it is widely understood that far more weight is given to research than teaching or service. "Publish or perish" is an adage commonly accepted within the academic community, especially research universities. Indeed, very few people are denied tenure because they teach poorly or provide little service. Most research universities now instruct junior faculty to avoid service and regularly provide reduced teaching loads initially, making it easier for young faculty to get a quick start on publishing, and hopefully improving the likelihood they won't perish.

My wife and I fell in love with Memphis and planned to stay there. By all accounts I was doing well as an assistant professor. I had very high teaching evaluations, was publishing one or two articles per year in refereed journals, and, to my knowledge, received the first federal grant in the history of the Criminal Justice Department. I was involved in a number of departmental committees and got along with faculty colleagues in my department.

Though my progress seemed to be superior, the department chair's evaluations of me were only average. It became increasingly obvious that being an outspoken Christian agitated the department chair. Forming a Christian faculty fellowship accented his frustration, especially when it became a vibrant presence on the campus. My religious activities, coupled with my research on religion, became an increasing source of resentment for the chair. He told me emphatically that none of my publications appearing in sociology journals focusing on religion would count toward tenure. It did not matter that the journals were peer-reviewed or had excellent standing. As a result, for the next several years I only submitted articles for publication having nothing to do with religion. I changed my entire research agenda for two years—forgoing studies on religion and crime—in an effort not to jeopardize my case for tenure. Colleagues at other universities, some who were religious and others who clearly were not, uniformly expressed shock that a department chair would say an article published in a scholarly journal would not count toward tenure because the subject matter involved religion. They assured me it would be impossible not to have those publications considered during the tenure review process.

In early May 1990, after turning in final grades for the spring semester, the department chair walked into my office with a big smile on his face and handed me a letter from the university...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: TEMPLETON FOUNDATION PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1599473941
• ISBN 13: 9781599473949
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 312
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar