| Islam is often thought of as a cultural force that reduces crime because, it is a both a communitarian religion and embedded belief system. In short, Islam places the community over the individual and religion has a strong influence on individual behavior in most Muslim countries. Research on Islam and crime has only divided countries into Islamic and non Islamic categories and has failed to capture important differences across Islamic nations. This paper will utilize two continuous level indicators of Islamic culture: Totality, the extent to which Sharia (Islamic law) is used and Authenticity, how society views ideas and institutions that are of non-Islamic origin, to see if Islamic legal culture his an effect on rates of homicide and violent crime rates. Hypotheses will be tested through statistical analysis, which uses a broad cross-national sample of Muslim and nonMuslim nations and which controls for non-religious influences on crime rates. |
Updated 05/20/2006