The under represented Atheist prison population claim.

[The Omnissiunt One]

I don't see why it would be difficult to gauge the religious beliefs of the prison populations to a very high degree of accuracy... Surprising that it hasn't been done by any reputable source.

Surprising? Hardly. No researcher wants to get beaten up or gang raped.

[Existentialist]

Surprising? Hardly. No researcher wants to get beaten up or gang raped.

Why's rape funny?

[Skipper]

Most of the atheists I have come across are very ehtical, moral individuals. They are very strict about upholding this framework, which is obviously a good thing. So while it doesn't surprise me if there are less atheists in prison, I too doubt this studdy. For one, by ratio wouldn't less atheists be in prison? Less atheists exist. So proportionally it is pretty accurate to assume that, given a smaller number of atheists throughout the world, there will be a smaller number of atheists in prison as compared to religious folk.

The information is done as percentage though!

For instance,

If say, 30% of the population of country X are of religion Y. You would expect the prison population of country X to be around 30% religion Y. If however, people who follow religion Y are only 1% of the population of the prison, then it's something to think about.

So in the actual case im making a fairly large chunk, say a fifth of the general population of the UK are atheist... you would expect about a fifth of the prison population to be Atheist. But it's not, only 1% of the prison population are saying their Atheist or Agnostic, but a MUCH higher percentage of the general population are saying they are Atheist or Agnostic.

Correlation obviously dosen't mean causation but it's interesting.

[theVOID]

Surprising? Hardly. No researcher wants to get beaten up or gang raped.

Why's rape funny?

It's not. Why did you feel the need to ask the question?

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

The argument is a non sequitor, confusing correlation with causation.

Once again with feeling: atheism is simply a lack of belief in god(s). NOTHING ELSE is implied or may be inferred.,as far as I'm aware.

Of course I may be completely wrong. I'll be thrilled to see any evidence of a causal relationship between say atheism and intellect,morality or criminality.I'd also like to see such evidence for any of the major religions..

[Existentialist]

Of course I may be completely wrong. I'll be thrilled to see any evidence of a causal relationship between say atheism and intellect,morality or criminality.I'd also like to see such evidence for any of the major religions..

Well of course there's hardly any evidence of such a relationship because apart from anything else there is so much popular confusion about the terminology of atheism, as has already been said in this thread. The only thing that would provide some evidence is a serious research study, but that idea was derailed by a daft comment about researchers getting raped. Any research study would need to make the distinction between prisoners who don't believe in god and prisoners who believe there is no god. It would probably also need to define god. It would also need to separate those who engage in religious rituals from those who don't. The "ATHEISM SIMPLY MEANS..." contingent would have to stand aside in favour of some serious research that clarifies the distinctions, and so the word atheism itself would probably have to be dropped in favour of some actual explanations of each position. It's hard to see how such a study could be practical, but in its absence the evidence for a causal link between believing there is no God and criminality is weak. It's still worth discussing though, as a theoretical idea, and there's nothing wrong with people having opinions about it.

[Cerrone]

It doesnt surprise me at all that that's the case with the "views" of people inside the prison system- if the stats are true. People who're religious are more likely to have the same level of intelligence of a man who'd commit a crime and have the stupidity to get caught and locked up for it.. LOL .. BUT prison isn't really a truthful comment on its society, or maybe it is in fact, but if you would perceive it as a more hopeless cage as apposed to the reservation metaphor of our society i.e we have relative freedom, but within strict boundries.

Prison is a very hopeless place for the most part, it's not the case anymore that you can get locked up for stealing car and while you're inside you learn about credit card fraud- like we used to see in movies, or how the russian mafia referred to prisons as colleges- and it's the on going product of institutionalisation. Today in the UK specifically the inmates of a prison are a collective of hopeless and desperate people who're likely to turn to anything for a glimmer of redemption, whether because they feel it genuinely or simply because it looks better to a parole board.

But of course, with statistics for nations, going back to the point about people with mild belief in "something" being taken by the censors as a religious orientation; whether they believe in the bible, torah or the ideals of buddism or they've just made up some idea about god over a glass of beer. It really is the case that, like Malcolm X said, if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything (and repeated to my dismay by George Bush), and if people don't make it plain who they are and what they believe they'll just get buried under the statistics.

[leo-rcc]

I can also imagine that "finding God" in prison helps with parole boards in the US, so less atheists would actually come out to state they are.

[chatpilot]

Labels, labels, labels! I don't see the correlation between a belief in God or a lack thereof to engaging in criminal activity. A criminal is a criminal regardless of religion, or lack of religion. I did 4 months in Rikers Island in 2003 for assault and when I was asked about my religious affiliation I said atheist and it was written on my id badge as non-religious. The religious population or those who claimed to be religious far outnumbered those who had no religion and few were bold enough to admit that they were atheist or non-believers. There is always the threat of getting shanked by some nut claiming to be a religious zealot, so the danger is always there. Some become religious in jail because of genuine guilt for their crimes and possible redemption, others to fit in, others to impress the parole board. I live in NYC and I see drug dealers on the streets everyday young and old proudly wearing their crosses around their necks as they sell their wares and conduct illegal activities.

In my opinion these so called studies are useless since they serve no real purpose, showing that more religious people are in jail than atheist proves nothing of worth to either side. As religious or not a criminal is a criminal.

[Buddy Lee]

Just to update the thread with new statistics, in 2010, atheists represented .08% of the U.S. federal prison population, while they represent about 1.6% of the general U.S. population (http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report...y-full.pdf [at page 5]).

The raw data is here: http://bornatheist.com/files/Federal_pri...istics.pdf

A press release is here: http://bornatheist.com/pprison.html

There is nothing to show causation in these statistics, but it sure must stick in the craw of religious people who claim atheists are "the greatest of evils," to find so few of them in prison.