Easy targets: Religious vulnerability to predatory crime

Katie E Corcoran, Corey J Colyer, Rachel E Stein and Bernard D DiGregorio

Rationality and Society, 2026, vol. 38, issue 1, 75-101

Abstract: Most prior research on religion and crime focuses on predictors of criminal behavior and neglects victimization. Studies of religion and victimization generally examine religion-based hate crimes. We present a theory of religion-based victimization drawing on routine activities theory, emphasizing how particular religious beliefs and practices may increase one’s vulnerability to predatory crime victimization due to opportunity, not hate. We draw on newspaper reports and secondary data to illustrate our theoretical propositions.

Keywords: Religion; routine activities theory; victimization; crime; strict church (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10434631251367272 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:38:y:2026:i:1:p:75-101

DOI: 10.1177/10434631251367272

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Rationality and Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().