UK Prision Population: Who Is The Most "Moral"?

[ReptilianPeon]

The BBC recently featured an article detailing the rise in the Muhammadan prison population in the U.K. which included prison statistics for 2004 and 2014, which I compared to the census data for 2001 and 2011. While the Muhammadan increase is interesting (the number of Muhammadan prisoners nearly doubled), my analysis of the data threw up some other fascinating numbers.

BBC Article.

For example, I never expected Buddhists to have the highest number of prisoners per 1000. Maybe lots of people become Buddhist while they are in jail? My study of the 2001 and 2011 census data does show that Buddhism is the fastest growing religion amoungst White British people in England and Wales (with an increase of 22,015, or 43.6%, compared to 14,230, or 22.5%, new White British Muhammadans). Buddhists also saw the biggest decline in prisoners per 1000 people however - though because I rounded the figures ireiligious prisoners saw an equally big decline per 1000.

Another this that caught my eye is the number of irreligious prisoners per 1000 irreligious people. Since we keep hearing about all these evil murderous Atheists who are driven only by their worldly desires, I expected irreligious people to have the biggest number of prisoners per 1000 people but this is far from the case.

Also, apparently Hindus are the least likely out of all the groups listed to end up in prison. I expected Buddhists to be the least likely yo go to prison. Maybe it's because people in the U.K. pracistse a Westernized form of Buddhism and they aren't 'real' Buddhists? Or something like that? Or maybe I'm a sucker for stereotypes.

Ethic group by religion 2011.
Ethic group by religion 2001.

Christian 41,438 (1.1 Christian prisoners per 1000 Christians)
No religion 23,709 (3.1Irreligious prisoners per 1000 irreligious people)
Muhammadan 6,571 (4.2 Muhammadan prisoners per 1000 Muhammadans)
Buddhist 1,133 (7.8 Buddhist prisoners per 1000 Buddhists)
Other religious group 600 (4.0 prisoners per 1000)
Sikh 498 (1.5 Sikh prisoners per 1000 Sikhs)
Hindu 342 (0.6 Hindu prisoners per 1000 Hindus)
Jewish 181 (0.7 Jewish prisoners per 1000 Jews)

Christian 37,338,486
No religion 7,709,267
Muhammadan 1,546,626
Buddhist 144,453
Other religious group 150,720
Sikh 329,358
Hindu 552,421
Jewish 59,927

Christian 42,706 (+1,268, +3.0%) (1.3 per 1000 Christians, +0.2)
No Religion 25,619 (+1,910, +7.5%) (1.8 per 1000 Irreligious, -1.3)
Muhammadan 12,106 (+5,535, +45.7%) (4.5 per 1000 Muhammadans, +0.2)
Buddhist 1,629 (+496, +30.4%) (6.6 per 1000 Buddhists, -1.3)
Other Religious Group (+965, +61.7%) (6.5 per 1000 other religion, +2.5)
Sikh 732 (+234, +32.0%) ( 1.7 per 1000 Sikhs, +0.2)
Hindu 447 (+105, +23.5%) (0.5 per 1000 Hindus, -0.1)
Jewish 319 (+138, 43.3%) (1.2 per 1000 Jews, +0.5)

Christian 33,243,175 (-10.9%)
No Religion 14,097,229 (+82.8%)
Muhammadan 2,706,066 (+74.9%)
Buddhist 247,743 (+71.5%)
Other Religious Group 240,530 (+59.5%)
Sikh 423,158 (+28.4%)
Hindu 816,633 (+47.8%)
Jewish 263,346 (+1.3%)

Thoughts?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Without more data and research on demographics on prison populations it's hard to draw a meaningful conclusion. However, anecdotally, there has been a problem with islamism within certain prison populations for a while. Religious conversion is pretty common in prisons, be it for atonement, or simply to have something to do to pass the time, or whatever.

Prisons, if UK prison inspectors and indeed staff are to believed, are severely underfunded in the UK, and its dubious whether private prison provision (provided by companies like G4S) are up to the task of filling in the gap. Poor funding, lack of control, and ultimately lack of rehabilitation compound the problems of extremism within prisons, which has been well documented:

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2014/0...-extremism
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27357208

http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/press/...extremism/

Government report which touches on the subject or religious and political extremism being fostered in prisons:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy..._FINAL.pdf

Kudos for the number analysis though. I've studied the ONs a data a lot for my PhD so it's good to see someone else looking through it and sorting the numbers. Helps when people come at you with BS statistics. ^_^

[robvalue]

That's a lot of non-true Christians.

Very interesting, thanks!

[ReptilianPeon]

I agree, it would be helpful to have a more detailed breakdown of the figures. Pandæmonium, if you're interested, I have a complete breakdown of the England and Wales Census data regarding religion. It's a huge spreadsheet comparing the 2001 data to the 2011 data and it has lots of charts and graphs I made to analyse the numbers. Send me a private message if you are. It'd be good to have someone check it because I think it looks messy. I created in order to attempt to find out which religion has the most converts since there are so many claims made.

[robvalue]

I keep hearing about people converting in prison because it favours them in parole hearings. Is this true in England? I don't know. It's ridiculous, and should be stopped everywhere. Clearly inmates are just going to do whatever you say if it means getting out early. It's sad that the church is so desperate as to cash in on this loophole.

[paulpablo]

I can't remember which video I was watching but I'm sure I saw one on youtube where he said people sometimes pretended to be muslim to get superior food. But then I also watched another video where a man was claiming that many prisoners get bullied into joining Islam. My info on this is vague though because it's been so long since I watched the videos.

[ReptilianPeon]

I can't remember which video I was watching but I'm sure I saw one on youtube where he said people sometimes pretended to be muslim to get superior food. But then I also watched another video where a man was claiming that many prisoners get bullied into joining Islam. My info on this is vague though because it's been so long since I watched the videos.

I'd like to know more about this so maybe it I'll ask around. It sounds very interesting. Do you remember which country it was filmed in? That will help narrow it down.

[paulpablo]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...-food.html

The information was definitely UK based but I could have even read it in a newspaper it might not have been a video.

[jesus_wept]

Obviously it's due to racism and islamophobia and we're only arresting them because they're browm skinned muslims.

I shall just ignore the muslim paedophile gangs that have been running rampant and ignored to not risk upsetting the Muslims to prove this point, we don't want anymore riots on our hands afterall.

Edit: I hope it's obvious I'm being sarcastic. I'm using my mobile and I don't know the code for the sarcasm smiley.