Fear of hell may keep crime rates down

Our take: Believing in hell is enough to help keep criminal activities down in certain areas. A recent study has found that areas in which people believe in heaven more than in the existence of hell, crime rates are higher than in areas where both heaven and hell are given equal weight. The same concept was found to be true for the belief in a forgiving God versus a punishing God because the idea of supernatural punishment causes more fear of being caught than if there is an assumption of forgiveness after the fact.

Religions are thought to serve as bulwarks against unethical behaviors. However, when it comes to predicting criminal behavior, the specific religious beliefs one holds is the determining factor, says a University of Oregon psychologist.

The study, appearing in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, found that criminal activity is lower in societies where people's religious beliefs contain a strong punitive component than in places where religious beliefs are more benevolent. A country where many more people believe in heaven than in hell, for example, is likely to have a much higher crime rate than one where these beliefs are about equal. The finding surfaced from a comprehensive analysis of 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries.

Read more about Fear of Hell keeps crime down on The Huffington Post.