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Irreligious prison population (view source)
Revision as of 02:27, February 21, 2017
, 02:27, February 21, 2017→FiveThirtyEight on atheists in prison statistics
''See also:'' [[FiveThirtyEight on atheists in prison statistics]]
''See also:'' [[FiveThirtyEight on atheists in prison statistics]]
''FiveThirtyEight'' is a prominent website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics and other matters.
Mona Chalabi wrote at ''FiveThirtyEight'' made some similar argument to Heina Dadabhoy, but she also added a few additional arguments:
{{Cquote|So what explains these discrepancies between religious affiliation inside prisons and outside them? I’ll set out a couple of possible theories.
'''1.''' Maybe it’s income. We [http://www.pewforum.org/2009/01/30/income-distribution-within-us-religious-groups/ know] that Muslims and Americans who identify with historically black Protestant churches tend to have lower incomes than the national average. And we know that 44 percent of federal prisoners earned less than $1,500 in the month prior to their arrest (I’m afraid the last time prisoners’ income was surveyed was in [http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/NACJD/guides/sisfcf.html 2004], though, and those are 2004 dollars).
'''2.''' Maybe it’s race. We know that even though African-Americans represented only [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html 13 percent] of the U.S. population in 2013, they represented [http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p13.pdf 36 percent] of the prison population. And we [http://www.people-press.org/2011/08/30/section-1-a-demographic-portrait-of-muslim-americans/ know] that Muslims are almost twice as likely to be African-American as the U.S. population as a whole. (I think race is also probably relevant when we’re thinking about the over-representation of Rastafarians and Santerians in prison too.)
'''3.''' Maybe it’s immigration. We [http://www.pewforum.org/2013/05/17/the-religious-affiliation-of-us-immigrants/#muslim know] that most American Muslims immigrated to the U.S. sometime after 1992. And we [http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p13.pdf know] that 12 percent of the federal prison population is described as “non-citizens” (a term that means they’re foreign-born and, according to Ed Ross, a spokesman at the Bureau of Prisons, entered the country illegally).
'''4.''' Maybe it’s conversion. Ross explained that prisons collect information on religious affiliation from inmates as part of the intake screening process. That information gets stored as part of their case management. But, he added, “anywhere along the way, inmates can have their information changed to reflect a change in their religious status. Anyone can find god or lose god while in prison.”<ref>[https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-prisoners-less-likely-to-be-atheists/ Are Prisoners Less Likely To Be Atheists?]</ref>}}
== Irreligion, illegitimate births and criminality ==
== Irreligion, illegitimate births and criminality ==