Crimes occurring at places of worship
| Author | Christopher P Scheitle |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| Published date | 01 January 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758015610855 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Crimes occurring at places
of worship: An analysis
of 2012 newspaper reports
Christopher P Scheitle
West Virginia University, USA
Abstract
Although the subject has received very little systematic research, media reports of crimes
occurring on the property of places of worship appear regularly. While the national media often
focus on violent incidents involving religious bias, local media often report on the more common
issues that many congregations face, such as vandalism and theft. This article presents analyses of
newspaper reports of crimes taking place on religious congregations’ property in 2012. The data
indicate that crimes occurring on the property of religious congregations are not an uncommon
event. Analyses suggest that congregations of religious minorities do not appear to be more likely
to have an incident occur on their property, but the crimes that do occur on their property appear
to be more bias-motivated. Future research would benefit from a nationally representative survey
of places of worship that included questions measuring experiences with crime.
Keywords
Places of worship, congregations, churches, religion, crime
Places of worship have long been a target of criminal activity. The most well-known cases involve
actions that led to significant destruction and/or deaths. For instance, on September 15, 1963 four
African-American girls were killed when their Baptist church was bombed with dynamite. On
August 5, 2012 a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin killed six worshippers. While such
extreme violence becomes recorded in history, places of worship also face much more frequent
and common acts of vandalism, burglary, and other crimes on a daily basis.
Systematic research on crimes occurring on the property of religious congregations, though, is
extremely sparse. This is unfortunate, not just because of the prevalence and social importance of
this phenomena, but because such research would contribute to rich literatures in social science. In
Corresponding author:
Professor Christopher P Scheitle, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, PO Box 6326, 307
Knapp Hall, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
Email: cpscheitle@mail.wvu.edu
International Review of Victimology
2016, Vol. 22(1) 65–74
ªThe Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0269758015610855
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