If 70% of Christians make up the U.S prison population. Does that mean that most Christians are criminals?

Question

If 70% of Christians make up the U.S prison population. Does that mean that most Christians are criminals?

Answer 1

No, it means most criminals are Christians.

You need to go back to school and re-learn deductive reasoning.

Answer 2

That's like saying every black person is a criminal.

Both statements are incorrect.  

Answer 3

Mikalina stole my answer before I was done with my Venn Diagram :)

It means that most criminals are christian, which isn't a surprise.  Not only are they the biggest population here in the US, but their God doesn't really care how they act, just that they claim allegiance.  Most religions would make you work for salvation,  and most criminals don't like to work.

Answer 4

No.  It means that 70% of prisoners think that pretending to be religious will help them gain an early release.

Answer 5

I must be psychic! How did I know that I was going to be blocked?

Thin-skinned trolls have no sense of humor :P

Answer 6

I don't know if your statistics are true. I do know that most people in this country say they are Christian if they have no other religion whether they practice christianity or not.

Answer 7

No.  

Answer 8

At most it means that 70% of the overall U.S. population claims Christianity as its faith. Which it does.

Answer 9

A lot of prisoners turn to Christianity AFTER they end up in prison.

Answer 10

Yes,  Just watch the news and you always see christians on there for all kinds of crimes to honor  jesus and god

Answer 11

No.  It just means there are more of us in gen pop.

Answer 12

You must ask yourself this question. How many of those criminals were atheist "before finding God in prison?"

Answer 13

Sure not, I don't know how does you reach to this conclusion!!

Answer 14

It WOULD mean that if it were true.

But I think you may have meant, "70% of the US prison population is Christian." Which would not imply anything, plus you would have to define your concept of Christian.  Were they Christian before they entered confinement or after?

Answer 15

There is more than one possible explanation here.  First, your figures and source of those figures may be wrong. Secondly, the Christians that are found in prisons more than likely became Christians because they finally realized that the life they were leading as criminals was getting them nowhere so they decided to turn to the One who would actually help them to get on with their life.  By the fact that they are in prison proves that the Atheistic penal system is an abysmal failure. So much for Atheistic morals. The last part of your question is based upon an inference and not any provable fact.

Answer 16

Do you mean that 70% of criminals are Christians or 70% of Christians are the U.S. prisoners..

Because if it's the first one then I would say it's because Christianity is the predominate culture in the U.S.  Otherwise I have no idea.

Answer 17

No, that means that most criminals become Christians while in prison.

Answer 18

No why would you say that?

Answer 19

no that means that the majority of the US population are Christian

Answer 20

There is a HUGE difference between a Christian and a "christian". Plus alot of prisoners get to hear the gosepl and the message of atonement and forgiveness in prison and they repent and turn to Christ in prison.

Answer 21

No, just republicans. hahahaha ZING!

Answer 22

As a former corrections officer, I think I can answer this question with some authority. Inmates for the most part are not believers in any religion. However (and this is where your figures comes from), many many of them regularly attend chapel services for the purpose of making contact with people from other areas of the prison. They use this unsupervised time to pass contraband and information. This has become increasing evident as gang activity grows outside the prison system and is continued within the prison system. Chapel services are the easiest way because it is the one time when inmates are allowed physical contact with other inmates. They hug, shake hands etc....all of which is against the rules outside of the chapel.

When I was an officer, I did see an occasional "real Christian". This was often a person who due to his crime was persecuted by the other inmates. God in this case was their only refuge. Whether or not that "faith" will continue once the person is back on the streets, I couldn't hazard a guess. That would be the real test.

One other comment I would like to make also. Christianity is not the ONLY religion practiced or allowed in prisons. In fact, where I worked, their were programs for Jews, Muslims and Jehoveh Witnesses as well. They ALL receive certain privileges along with their belief....the most priviledged are the Muslims. They get out of more work and more responsibilities because of their "faith" requirements than does any other religious sector. We even had to treat their personal property differently when doing a cell search so that we could not be accused of "dishonoring their holy items etc.

Answer 23

NO   means  they never  completed  high school!

Answer 24

its known as "jailhouse religion". Many prisoners will claim to be Christians while locked up and then revert back to their old way of life when they are released.

Answer 25

No, you haven't stated either the number of christians or the number of prisoners in the US.

Answer 26

The devil made them do it! LOL

Answer 27

"Within the United States Prison Systems,

there are Less than 2% of baptized Christians."

"The rest of them better claim some type of religion."

"Most convicted felons won't choose a religion, until

they actually have become prison inmates."

Answer 28

No. But it does mean the most criminals profess to be Christian. In fact many find or renew their salvation in jail.

Answer 29

no, it just means alot of criminals claim to be Christian.

-Christian

Answer 30

You wrote that wrong. What you meant to say was 70% of the prison population is christian. The figure is actually closer to 80%, by the way. All it means is that, in the US, most criminals are christian, not the other way around. There's no doubt in my mind that most christians are law-abiding, and it's an atheist saying that. And on a related side note, the figure for atheists is about two-tenths of a percent, even though we make up about 10% of the general population. These statistics are for religion declared when entering prison, just in case people want to claim that inmates 'get religion' while incarcerated.

Answer 31

If 70% of all prisoners are Christian, that doesn't mean that 70% of all Christians are in prison, nor does it mean that only Christians are in the U.S. prison population. Both are implied by your first sentence.