RT Article
T1 God’s penology: Belief in a masculine God predicts support for harsh criminal punishment and militarism
JF Punishment & society
VO 22
IS 2
SP 135
OP 160
A1 Baker, Joseph O. 1983-
A2 Whitehead, Andrew L.
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1761701231
AB Prior research demonstrates that multiple dimensions of religiosity significantly predict punitive attitudes and militarism. This study highlights the importance of believing in a masculine God, an aspect of religiosity with a robust and consistent relationship to punitiveness and militarism, but which has previously been unexamined. After accounting for multiple aspects of religiosity highlighted by previous research—such as frequency of religious practice, religious tradition, fundamentalist identity and beliefs, and other dimensions of God image including love, anger, judgment, and engagement—believing that God is a “He” consistently and strongly increases support for harsh social policies targeting intra-societal enemies (criminals), as well as general militarism and campaigns targeting extra-societal enemies (e.g. “terrorists”). These results highlight the importance of theorizing and measuring gendered dimensions of belief in God, as well as the importance of fine-grained considerations of religion in studies of penal populism and militarism.
K1 war on terror
K1 Capital Punishment
K1 Gender
K1 Images of God
K1 Masculinity
K1 Militarism
K1 Penal Populism
K1 Punitiveness
K1 Religion
DO 10.1177/1462474519850570