TITLE:
Religious Practice and Attitudes towards Offenders
AUTHORS:
Lucas Marcelo Rodriguez, José Eduardo Moreno
KEYWORDS:
Religious Practice; Forgiveness; Adolescence; Prosocial Attitudes
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.4 No.8,
July
24,
2013
ABSTRACT: This ex post facto study aims to investigate the
influence of religious practice on the types of reaction to situations of
offence. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to evaluate the
relationship between religious practice and the attitudes towards offenders.
The study was carried out with adolescents and young people of both sexes. The
sample comprised 673 male and female, with an average age of 18.28 and standard
desviation of 1.21. As regards the religion that they practiced: 555 were catholic
(82.5%) 39 were evangelical (5.8%) and others 79 (11.7%). To assess the level
of religious practice, a grid with items containing the frequency of religious
practice was prepared, taking into account the person’s self perception. The
second instrument used was the Attitudes Towards Offenders Questionnaire
(ATOQ). This instrument consists of seven scales, grouped into three factors:
passive, aggressive and prosocial behavior, corresponding to the different
responses to situations of offence: submission, denial, vengeance, resentment, hostility,
claim for an explanation and forgiveness. The result of MANOVA of the tree
factors of ATOQ, according to religious practice (practitioner, occasional
practitioner and not practitioner), stated a significant difference. When
analyzing the contrasts we can see that practitioners are less aggressive with
respect to occasional practitioners and non practitioners. As regards the
prosocial factor, the only significant contrast is shown in practitioners, who
have a higher average of prosocial attitudes compared to non-practitioners.