If Cruz can claim most criminals are Democrats, I can say most are Christian. Take a look

[sinkingfeeling]

at this, from the Federal Bureau of Prisons:





So can we say that most violent crimes are committed by Christians?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/16/what-percentage-of-prisoners-are-atheists-its-a-lot-smaller-than-we-ever-imagined/

[SamKnause]

1. ???

American Indian is considered a religion ????

[meow2u3]

3. If you're referring to traditional Native American religions, it's true

I think it's a poorly worded explanation.

[SamKnause]

4. I agree.

It is poorly worded.

[NightWatcher]

6. It's a catch all category, similar to Protestant

Protestant covers Methodist, Baptist...

American Indian covers a wide range of spiritual religions that encompasses Ghost Dancers to others who worship the Great Spirit or other "natural" earth spirits.

[SamKnause]

7. Thank you.

[NightWatcher]

9. You're welcome. It's a hard category to list, so general terms are used

A lot of tribes have their own slightly different take.

[Frustratedlady]

2. Too bad he wasn't comparing politicians. Don't we have a list?

I seem to remember Republican politicians filled a majority of that list...lots of sex crimes.

Just sayin'.

[merrily]

5. Why is the Federal Bureau of Prisons prying into anyone's religion, anyway?

When I check into the hospital, they ask me. I assume that is so that they can have a member of the clergy visit me, if one is available, or administer last rites if I am Catholic and appear likely to die. And, I have no fear of refusing to answer the hospital clerk, if that is my wish.

However, if I were a prisoner being asked, fear might be a factor. So, why is the Federal Bureau of Prisons prying into anyone's religion? And, while prying, do they advise prisoners that they have a Constitutional right not to answer this question?

Yes, I know. This is not the kind of reply the OP intended to elicit, but my different drummer drew my attention to the issue in this post.

[Turn CO Blue]

10. Could be as simple as needing to know about objections to medical care or

what to do with the remains if the prisoner has a fatal heart attack (some faiths having different preparation beliefs and within so many hours, etc), or dietary restrictions of some faiths - that's if the question is non-anonymous

Or more likely it's that statisticians from every profession from psychiatry to census takers really, really like to collect data, and a statistician set up this questionnaire as an SOP 80 years ago, and everybody in the system still goes through the motions.

But yes, at the least they should advise prisoners in earnest of their rights in responding or not.

I don't think it can compare to EOE rules, where the job interviewer is not allowed to ask your age or even hint around questions to determine your age, and here in Colorado it has become popular to say in job postings that employers don't discriminate against people with "body ink or art" -- as opposed to in the prison system, where I'm sure DOB and identifying tattoos are part of your file and ID.

[merrily]

11. There are ways to find out all those things, without asking anyone his or her religion.

"I don't think it can compare to EOE rules,"

I didn't even imply that comparison or any similar one. I expressly held up the question to the Constitution of the United States and only the Constitution.

I think the Bill of Rights should still mean something, no matter how many amendments have been shredded already.

[Turn CO Blue]

12. Yes, I agree, they could find out that information

without prying into religion. You are absolutely correct. I was just thinking and supposing outloud the reasons they might ask the questions both innocent and nefarious, doing so as I typed, OBVIOUSLY I should have done my research, learned the reason they ask, come back and eviscerated it as completely insidious and awful practice by prisons.

However, since American prisons tend to treat prisoners like dogs and prison guards commonly refer to prisoners as "animals" -- and since prisoners have LOST their constitutional right to vote, their constitutional right to assemble, their constitutional right to privacy (including as an example, the right to take a dump in private), and lost their more pressing constitutional right to not be beaten up by a prison guard and have it covered up, there are MANY concerns about prisoner's rights that are quite pressing.

I get very anxious about writing or expressing myself - that is why I have so few posts in over ten years. I feel I must be too wordy or too something because clearly my intent is easily misunderstood I keep having to learn this lesson every couple of years to not join in in any way. Lesson learned again.

[jeff47]

14. They have to staff the chapel (or equivalent) somehow. (nt)

[merrily]

15. Christian, Jewish, Muslim and non-denominational comforter would seem to be safe bets.

[jeff47]

22. Still have to have a ballpark idea of how many might show up, and on what days. (nt)

[JonathanRackham]

8. What no pastafarians?

Must be totally law abiding.

[Iggo]

13. Yes, we can.

[TryLogic]

16. Good point. How do we reply to Cruz? idiots.com?

[olddots]

17. Can Cruz prove he is a human being ?

[whatthehey]

18. The difference being you have data.

[valerief]

19. Atheism isn't a religious affiliation. It's the lack of one. It's not a belief. It's the lack of one

The opposite of a protrusion is a dent. The absence of a protrusion isn't a dent. Atheism is absence of belief.

Just a pet peeve of mine.

But I like your statement, that most violent crimes are committed by Christians, at least in the U.S.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. You can, but you probably don't want to.

There are roughly equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, so "more violent crimes are committed by Democrats" implies that more violent crimes per capita are committed by Democrats.

If you scale those numbers per capita by the first religious survey I've come across (at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States), which gives the numbers

Affiliation % of U.S. population

Protestant 46.5
Catholic 20.8
Mormon 1.6
Jehovah's Witnesses 0.8
Eastern Orthodox 0.5
Other Christian 0.4
Nothing in particular 15.8
Agnostic 4.0
Atheist 3.1
Jewish 1.9
Muslim 0.9
Buddhist 0.7
Hindu 0.7
Other Non-Christian faiths 1.8
Don't know/refused answer 0.6

Then by far the most overrepresented group in prison is Muslims (by a factor of more than 8), followed by Catholics (1.9); Protestants are less likely to be in prison than average by a factor of 0.75.

Most other groups are about what you'd expect; atheists are noteable for making up about 1/14th as much of the prison population as you'd expect.

So if you want to use data on prison populations to single out followers of one religion for committing more crimes than you'd expect, it wouldn't be Christianity.

[Bucky]

21. So we could cut down on crime by forcing everyone to become Mormon or Santarian.

I'm okay with that.