“Because you’ve got faith it doesn’t mean that you’ve got wings on your back”: a qualitative analysis of the accounts of Christian prisoners serving time for a sexual offence

Abstract

Because you've got faith it doesn't mean that you've got wings on your back': a qualitative analysis of the accounts of Christian prisoners serving time for a sexual offence

‘Better as a Buddhist’: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Reflections on the Religious Beliefs of Buddhist Men Serving a Prison Sentence for a Sexual Offence

“…So why Buddhism? The current study with prisoners who identify as Buddhist is part of a larger research program with individuals of different faiths (see Winder et al 2018;Blagden et al 2018). Research on the link between recidivism and religion has demonstrated a weak association between the two (Johnson 2004): research such as this has, however, led to calls for more research on the impact of religious involvement and, in particular, faith-based treatment programs in prison (see, for example, Thomas and Zaitzow 2006).…”

“…The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, which lasted between 1.5 and 3 h. The interview schedule was developed from that used for previous research investigating Christianity within this population (Winder et al 2018), and the questions were adapted to reflect the differences between Buddhism and the Christian faith. The questions were categorized into five main sections:…”

“I thought in order to get to God I had to win their approval”: a qualitative analysis of the experiences of Muslim victims abused by religious authority figures

“…The analysis was guided by previous precedents (see Smith, 2015;Blagden et al, 2016;Winder et al, 2019) and entailed detailed reading, re-reading and analysis of each transcript individually by each member of the research team. Themes were identified through a rigorous process whereby the research team members each created a thematic map, which contained between 10 and 13 potential themes or "hubs".…”

Let Him Who Is without Sin Cast the First Stone: Religious Struggle among Persons Convicted of Sexually Offending

“…Although in its infancy, this line of academic inquiry is supported by theoretical constructs (Kewley 2019), preliminary research findings supporting the potential contribution of r/s to desistance from sexual offending (Harris et al 2017;Kewley et al 2015;Kewley et al 2017), and self-reports from those who have sexually offended that religion and spirituality are important in their recovery (Geary et al 2004;Geary et al 2006;Robbers 2009;Tewksbury and Mustaine 2009;Tewksbury and Zgoba 2010). Conversely, studies have argued that affiliation with religion can serve to promote criminal behavior when religious doctrine is used to support cognitive distortions that rationalize offending behaviors (Knabb et al 2012;Topalli et al 2012;Winder et al 2018). Despite recent scholarly interest in how r/s might positively or negatively influence desistance, very little is known about how r/s constructs present among those who have sexually offended, or how religious and spiritual struggles might contribute to, or deter from desistance.…”