Two themes, coercion and social support, have emerged over the past two decades in criminology that can be used to build a new integrated theory of crime. The authors provide a review of recent theoretical developments in criminology to demonstrate that two interconnected themes provide the basis for a new consensus in theory and crime policy. With some important exceptions, coercion causes crime and social support prevents crime. The authors develop a theory of differential social support and coercion that integrates concepts from a broad range of criminological theories. Implications of this integrated theory for public policy are explored.

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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