FORGIVENESS AND FUNDAMENTALISM: RECONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORRECTIONAL ATTITUDES AND RELIGION* BRANDON K. APPLEGATE University of Central Florida
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FRANCIS T. CULLEN BONNIE S. FISHER University of Cincinnati
THOMAS VANDER VEN Hofstra University
Although research typically has failed to establish a relationship between religious affiliation and correctional attitudes, recent assessments have revealed that fundamentalist Christians tend to be more punitive than are nonfundamentalists. These studies have advanced our understanding considerably, but their conceptualization of religion and correctional attitudes has been limited. Using a statewide survey, the present study demonstrates that compassionate as well as fundamentalist aspects of religious beliefs are related to public correctional preferences. Further, our results reveal that religion influences support for rehabilitation as well as punitiveness. These findings suggest the need for scholars to think more broadly about the role of religion in criminology. David Garland (1990:203) recently observed that “throughout the history of penal practice religion has been a major force in shaping the ways in which offenders are dealt with.” Despite this long tradition, little research has seriously explored the relationship between religious views and correctional attitudes. Most of the research that has been conducted on public attitudes toward justice policies either failed to consider religion altogether or divided respondents into broad categories of affiliation, typically producing null relationships. In contrast, a handful of recent studies have examined the issue more closely, revealing greater punitiveness
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* This project was supported by Grant 96-IJ-CX-OOO7 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, and a grant awarded by the University Research Council, University of Cincinnati. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the University of Cincinnati. CRIMINOLOGY VOLUME38 NUMBER3 2000
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