Associations between religiosity, aggression and crime: results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the association between religiosity, aggression (self- and other-directed) and law-breaking behaviors. Methods: We used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) in the United States of America across 2008–2014, with a pooled sample of 270,227 adult respondents. We categorized respondents as religious if they considered religious beliefs to be important parts of their lives and/or to be influential in making decisions and/or if they considered it important that friends share their beliefs and/or if they reported attending at least one service over the past 12 months. We used regression models to calculate the odds ratio for committing different forms of aggression and for breaking the law when measuring positively on religiosity and its parameters. Results: More than 85% of our sample qualified as religious. A positive religiosity was correlated with a statistically significant lower risk of self-directed aggression [aOR = 0.83, 95% CI (0.69–0.99)]. Importance of religious beliefs and influence of religious beliefs were inversely correlated to perpetration of self-directed aggression [aOR = 0.81, 95% CI (0.70–0.95)] and [aOR = 0.82, 95% CI (0.70–0.96)], respectively. Positive religiosity was not significantly correlated to lower odds of other-directed aggression. All religiosity parameters were associated with significantly reduced odds of breaking the law, except for infrequent service attendance which was associated with a significantly higher risk of breaking the law [aOR = 1.07, 95% CI (1.03–1.12)]. Conclusion: Religiosity has components with a differential impact on aggressive and law-breaking behaviors. Future longitudinal studies are needed to analyze whether religiosity protects against suicidality and promotes pro-social actions. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.