The under represented Atheist prison population claim.
September 14, 2010 at 9:44 am
(This post was last modified: September 14, 2010 at 9:55 am by Skipper.)
As you know im fairly new to the Forum (and any sort of Atheist community as such) so im sure this has been discussed before...so shoot me!
While browsing I've come across the claim on a few different sites and blogs that the Atheist prison population is dramatically lower in relation to its wider society population.
Various sources has the population of the U.K people who believe in no god at around the 20% - 30% mark.
A bbc poll even puts non-believers at 33% of the population of the u.k. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wt...518375.stm)
Another bbc poll puts Athesits at 15% and Agnostics at 4% (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pr...wtogod.pdf)
(some sites even suggest as high as 44% but to me, while its an encouraging number it seems very generous.)
Now a home office report says
"The largest group of prisoners from religions other than Christianity was Muslim, forming about 7% of the total. Other religious groups, such as Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Sikhs, each formed less than 1% of the population. Inmates with No religion formed an important minority at around 30% of the total population. Only 1% of these were Agnostics and Atheists. The remainder had no stated religious affiliation."
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hosb1501.pdf
I found a few sites who doubt the claim that Atheists are under represented in prison populations but they seem to group those who are of "no religion" together with the Atheists, which tell me if im wrong, is silly as I know plenty of people who are of "no religion" yet still believe in a spirit, god, higher power or so on.
But in saying that a few Atheist and freethinking focused pages and forums seem also to call the data into question. Also citing generally the prison population is of a lower IQ, making them more likely to attribute themselves to a religion and also the fact that a lot of people likely turn to religion whilst in prison as a last refuge. Which are both valid points.
However, to me the stats seem to indicate that even allowing for rather generous discrepancies in the numbers Atheists in prison are under represented as a percentage when compared to that of the wider population. Puts a hole in the popular anti Atheist argument of us not having good morals or knowing the difference between right and wrong.
Also worth noting the Muslim population in the U.K in 2001 was 2.7% while the prison population of Muslims in 2000 was 7%.
Like I say, this has all probably been bought up before, but I would love anyone else's input on the subject as among a variety of sites what the data implies and even the data itself seems to be disputed.
While browsing I've come across the claim on a few different sites and blogs that the Atheist prison population is dramatically lower in relation to its wider society population.
Various sources has the population of the U.K people who believe in no god at around the 20% - 30% mark.
A bbc poll even puts non-believers at 33% of the population of the u.k. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wt...518375.stm)
Another bbc poll puts Athesits at 15% and Agnostics at 4% (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pr...wtogod.pdf)
(some sites even suggest as high as 44% but to me, while its an encouraging number it seems very generous.)
Now a home office report says
"The largest group of prisoners from religions other than Christianity was Muslim, forming about 7% of the total. Other religious groups, such as Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Sikhs, each formed less than 1% of the population. Inmates with No religion formed an important minority at around 30% of the total population. Only 1% of these were Agnostics and Atheists. The remainder had no stated religious affiliation."
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hosb1501.pdf
I found a few sites who doubt the claim that Atheists are under represented in prison populations but they seem to group those who are of "no religion" together with the Atheists, which tell me if im wrong, is silly as I know plenty of people who are of "no religion" yet still believe in a spirit, god, higher power or so on.
But in saying that a few Atheist and freethinking focused pages and forums seem also to call the data into question. Also citing generally the prison population is of a lower IQ, making them more likely to attribute themselves to a religion and also the fact that a lot of people likely turn to religion whilst in prison as a last refuge. Which are both valid points.
However, to me the stats seem to indicate that even allowing for rather generous discrepancies in the numbers Atheists in prison are under represented as a percentage when compared to that of the wider population. Puts a hole in the popular anti Atheist argument of us not having good morals or knowing the difference between right and wrong.
Also worth noting the Muslim population in the U.K in 2001 was 2.7% while the prison population of Muslims in 2000 was 7%.
Like I say, this has all probably been bought up before, but I would love anyone else's input on the subject as among a variety of sites what the data implies and even the data itself seems to be disputed.
