Worship and Sin: Religion-Related Crime in the United States raises provocative questions about
the role of religion in crime and criminal behavior. Arguing that religion-related crime should
be classified as a distinct subset of crime worthy of continued investigation by scholars this
book brings together for the first time the disparate scholarly research related to various
types of religion-related crime presents numerous examples and considers the practical and
legal issues facing practitioners of various disciplines. This ground-breaking work takes great
care to present a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon and illustrates the complex and
multidimensional nature of this crime category. A three-pronged typology is presented as a
conceptual framework to distinguish the unique features of different types of religion-related
crime and to highlight the dynamic historical psychological social and cultural forces
involved in each. The author opens the text with several introductory chapters which serve to
define religion-related crime explore the role of religion in society and to provide an
overview of legal and policy issues. The remaining chapters provide detailed examples of three
different types of religion-related crime: theologically-based crimes which are those which
are a result of a particular religious custom practice or belief while reactive defensive
crimes are those which come about more as a result of social or political tensions between the
religious member or group and the broader secular community. The third type of religion-related
crime identified is the abuse of religious authority. This category explores crimes committed
by clergy who have taken advantage of their social political and religious status. To further
broaden an understanding of religion-related crime the author provides chapters which explore
crimes against women and children the use of illicit drugs in religious practice or to reach
desired states of spiritual awareness the nature and function of destructive religious groups
violence against reproductive health providers hate crime and crimes committed by clergy.
