Divine Justice: The Relationship Between Images of God and Attitudes Toward Criminal Punishment

Abstract

Some have argued that moralistic considerations trump other factors in determining attitudes toward criminal punishment. Consequently, recent research has examined how views of God influence sentiments regarding criminal punishment. Using the Baylor Religion Survey (BRS) 2005, we find that (a) angry and judgmental images of God are significant predictors of punitive attitudes regarding criminal punishment and the death penalty and (b) images of God as loving and engaged in the world are not consistently significant predictors of attitudes toward criminal punishment, once measures of God’s perceived anger and judgment are considered.

Reexamining the effect of christian denominational affiliation on death penalty support

“…Biblical literalism is often discussed as a factor that increases individuals' support for the death penalty and other punitive punishments (Grasmick, Bursik, & Blackwell, 1993;Grasmick et al, 1992;Unnever, Cullen, & Fisher, 2005;Young, 1992;Young & Thompson, 1995), but the present study finds that literalism only exerts a negative effect when interacting with evangelical affiliation. This finding may be surprising to many scholars, but the relationship between Biblical literalism and support for the death penalty fails to reach statistical significance as frequently as it is positive (Applegate et al, 2000;Bader & Johnson, 2007;Borg, 1998;. Furthermore, several studies do find a negative relationship between literalism and death penalty support, even though the relationship fails to reach statistical significance (Britt, 1998;Unnever, Cullen, & Applegate, 2005a;Unnever, Bartkowski, & Cullen, 2010;Unnever, Cullen, & Bartkowski, 2006).…”

“…Because several studies found significant relationships between church attendance (Bader & Johnson, 2007;Messner, Baumer, & Rosenfeld, 2006;Unnever & Cullen, 2007a), Biblical literalism (Britt, 1998;Grasmick et al, 1992;Unnever, Cullen, & Fisher, 2005;Young, 1992), and support for the death penalty, measures of these constructs are included in the present analysis. Church attendance is a categorical variable with nine responses ranging from "never" to "more than once a week;" higher values indicate more frequent attendance.…”

“…The respondents' image of God is included because this variable, too, has been shown to significantly impact attitudes toward punishment (Bader & Johnson, 2007;Evans & Adams, 2003;Unnever, Bartkowski, & Cullen, 2010). This construct is operationalized with Greeley's (1993Greeley's ( , 1995 "gracious image of God" scale by summing across four questions that ask respondents to place their image of God on a seven-point scale between two contrasting images: a) mother vs. father, b) master vs. spouse, c) judge vs. lover, d) king vs. friend.…”

In-home firearm access among US adolescents and the role of religious subculture: Results from a nationally representative study

“…For conservative Protestants, this can involve a tendency to reduce the sources of behavior to -sinful‖ choices and a resistance to recognizing structural influences. Additionally, conservative Protestants may frequently draw upon select Old Testament imagery of a wrathful and retributive God in justifying harsh and decisive reactions (Froese and Bader 2010;Bader et al 2010;Ellison 1991b;Emerson, Smith, and Sikkink 1999).…”

In-Home Firearm Access among US Adolescents and the Role of Religious Subculture: Results from a Nationally Representative Study

“…Testament imagery of a wrathful and retributive God in justifying harsh and decisive reactions (Froese and Bader 2010;Bader et al 2010;Ellison 1991b;Emerson, Smith, and Sikkink 1999).…”