I don’t have any idea how much or how many people are working on crime prevention but it is a lot. Just to name a few: many criminologists, World Health Organization, United States National Research Council, UK Audit Commission, many opinion polls, and several books, etc. Personally I have not done a lot of research on this topic but to my knowledge none of these organizations or criminologists use the Bible as a source to provide solutions to the problem. In the past we have relied on the Bible to form our government and it was by far the most quoted source of all the early writings (34% of all quotes). We have relied on it for moral guidance. Noah Webster who has been called the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” stated that “The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society.”
The Bible has provided guidance on a lot of social issues such as the work week, crop rotation, personal diet, medical and personal hygiene, and personal finances just to name a few. So why not then how to solve the crime issues we face today.
Then with my extensive research (ha-ha), I want to look at three basic approaches to solve the problem and see what the experts of the day say and what the Bible has to say. For this exercise I am just going to address the areas where the Bible (God) and society agree that it is a crime.
Approach 1: Removing catalysts in our culture that promote crime
For this approach I am just going to address one criminal area, pornography, but there could be a lot of other areas that could be evaluated. The Biblical support for this is to keep us from temptation. In The Lord’s Prayer we say “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” In James 1:14 he states “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” So we can do this by removing the things we see that can cause us problems.
In the Old Testament they put their idols where they could see them and that caused them to sin. Ezekiel 14:3b states “they set the stumbling block (idols) before their faces.” Ezekiel 20:8b states “None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on.” Genesis 3:6 states “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes.” So when we view porn our evil desires are activated. But not everyone sees it that way.
Several years ago, I was traveling on business in North America. I flew into a city and rented a car to take me where I had to go. I turned on the radio. It was previously set to a station by a former driver, and I heard the most shocking statement. The person on the radio kept repeating this statement, “If you are healthy, pornography is healthy.” That was the first time that I realized that some people actually believe that pornography can be good for you. How crazy is that! We have declined so drastically that 42% of all adults believe that viewing pornography is acceptable.
Pornography is wide spread. Craig Gross and Ron Jeremy state that “Every second, 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography. Every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is being created in the United States. Every day, 68 million pornographic requests are searched online.”
They go on to say, “the porn industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined. In 2006, the industry had ballooned to $97.06 billion dollars.” So, today it is probably much larger.
Pornography is clearly linked to violent crime. In the same article by Gross and Jeremy, they state that “One of the most powerful testimonies we’ve ever heard regarding pornography addiction came from the serial killer Ted Bundy. This man confessed to more than 30 murders. Just before he was to be executed by electric chair on January 24, 1989, he granted an interview to James Dobson, Founder and President of the organization, Focus on the Family. Bundy went on record to say:
“I’ve lived in prison for a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography – deeply consumed by the addiction. The F.B.I.’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers.
I’m not blaming pornography. I’m not saying it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for all the things that I’ve done. That’s not the question here. The issue is how this kind of literature contributed and helped mold and shape the kinds of violent behavior.
Those of us who have been so influenced by violence in the media, particularly pornographic violence, are not some kind of inherent monsters. We are your sons and husbands. We grew up in regular families. Pornography can reach in and snatch a kid out of any house today. It snatched me out of my home 20 or 30 years ago.”
More startling is that Bundy not only grew up in a regular, loving family…he grew up in a Christian home.
Dr. Mary Anne Layden stated in her report to the Kansas Legislature in 2011 that “I had been doing this work for more than 10 years before I realized that I had not treated one case of sexual violence that did not include pornography.”
According to Charles Keating of Citizens for Decency Through Law, research reveals that 77 percent of child molesters of boys and 87 percent of child molesters of girls admitted imitating the sexual behavior they had seen modeled in pornography.
We all know how pornography has spilled over into the church. According to Archdiocese of Omaha Anti-Pornography task force at the time of this publication:
- Over half of evangelical pastors admit viewing pornography
- 57% of pastors say that addiction to pornography is the most sexually damaging issue to their congregation
Then viewing porn is deadly so you would think it would make sense to restrict people from viewing it. With this in mind I tried to find some place on the planet where this principle was being implemented and I found Singapore. This is it. The safest country on Earth. Tiny Singapore is home to 5.3 million people crammed into an area almost four times smaller than Rhode Island (pop. 1 million). With such an insane level of overcrowding, you might expect things to quickly spiral into violence and resentment. Not so. In 2011, a mere 16 people were murdered. In 2015 and 2016, all forms of violent crime and thefts hit either 10 or 20 year lows.
The rape rate incidents per 100,000 in 2015 were 2.9 in Singapore and 28.4 in the United States, about 10 times worse.
One way Singapore does this is by restricting access to porn.
The Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), however, has banned approximately 100 porn websites as a symbolic gesture that Singaporean values do not condone the viewing of pornographic content. In Singapore, it is illegal to keep, possess or download porn under the Undesirable Publications Act and the Films Act. This is regardless of whether the porn is in physical or digital form, and even if the porn was for personal use.
If you are found to be possessing pornographic films, you can be fined up to $20,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 6 months under section 30(1) of the Films Act. The penalties are higher if you are found to have known, or to have had reasonable cause to believe, that the film in your possession was obscene.
So as a society if we would do a better job at restricting access to porn our crime rate would drop. Restricting access is one approach but another approach would be to actually punish the criminals as a deterrent.
Approach 2: Punishment as a deterrent
So we briefly looked at removing catalysts and opportunities that incite a person to commit a crime. Now let’s look at ways to reduce a person’s desire to commit a crime. Our culture views punishment as a means to rehabilitate the criminal.
Actually the Wikipedia definition for Punishment as a deterrence is:
“Individual deterrence where the aim of punishment is to discourage the offender from criminal acts in the future. The belief is that when punished, offenders recognize the unpleasant consequences of their actions on themselves and will change their behavior accordingly.”
Sure this true but it misses the most important value in punishment. All of these verses are in reference to punishment:
- Deuteronomy 13:11 “And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.”
- Deuteronomy 17:13 “And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.”
- Deuteronomy 19:20 “And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.”
- Acts 5:11 “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.”
Punishment is more for others to see and then determine not to do the same crime so that they will not be punished. Then this also only works if the punishment is severe enough. Shaking your finger in little Johnnies face and telling him not to do it again won’t cut it. Let’s look at some of God’s recommended punishments. All of these at one time received the death penalty: murder, adultery, rape of a betrothed virgin, male-male sexual intercourse, kidnapping, and even rebellion against parents. Punishment for stealing was to pay back more than you took. Exodus 22:1 states “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.”
But you say that is crazy and far too severe. But it was God’s direction.
Let’s look at Singapore again:
Singaporean law allows caning to be ordered for over 35 offences, including hostage-taking/kidnapping, robbery, gang robbery with murder, rioting, causing grievous hurt, drug abuse, vandalism, extortion, sexual abuse, molestation (often referred to as “outrage of modesty”), and unlawful possession of weapons. Caning is also a mandatory punishment for certain offences such as rape, drug trafficking, illegal moneylending, and for foreigners who overstay by more than 90 days – a measure designed to deter illegal immigrants.
Caning is, in practice, always ordered in addition to a jail sentence and never as a punishment by itself. It is administered in an enclosed area in the prison out of the view of the public and other inmates. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the offender, while waiting in a queue for his turn to be caned, has the chance to observe those before him getting caned. The order is determined by the number of strokes the offender is receiving, with the largest number going first.
In practice, the offender is required to strip completely naked for the caning. Once he has removed his clothes, he is restrained in a large wooden trestle based on the British dual-purpose prison flogging frame. The punishment is administered on his bare buttocks to minimize the risk of any injury to bones and organs. He is not gagged.
They actually sell canes in stores for parents to use on their children. But we don’t even allow mild spanking.
Bible verses on spanking:
- Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”
- Proverbs 23:13-14: “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die
Here are some of the comparisons of crime rates in Singapore vs the US (per 100,000)
- General rape rate: Singapore 2.7 vs US 27.3 (US 10 times more)
- Rape as a violent crime: US is also 10 times more
- Intentional Homicide rate: Singapore .51 vs US 4.7 (US 9 times more)
- Murders as a violent crime: Singapore 2.6 vs US 27.4 (US 14 times more)
Also police presence is a great deterrent but the US proportion of police officers to people is 64 times more than Singapore.
WOW what a difference.
Since we don’t punish strong enough we just keep putting convicted criminals in prison and now they are extremely overcrowded. Since they are overcrowded we let others go. The prison population has grown from about 100,000 in 1920 to around 2.5 million today.
But what about the mass murderer who knows he is probably going to die and does it anyway? I’m glad you asked.
He has no fear of man; if he survives at most he will get life in prison. If he dies he won’t know it because he believes there is no God or life after death. And that’s where we as a society have failed.
Approach 3: We need to bring back the overall knowledge of God.
In our lifetime, we have seen a dramatic change in the Bibles impact on our culture. The Bible has for the most part has been removed from public areas and the truths of scripture have little influence on society in general. The Christian historian David Barton states that the Bible was a centerpiece of our American ancestors’ lives but is no longer seen as a practical guide book for society. Noah Webster who has been called the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” stated that “The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society.” The Pilgrims wanted to conform the culture to God’s Word and viewed the Bible as a life manual for day to day living. Even though the Bible was the most significant book in forming our government it is now mostly confined to our churches.
Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1791 warned not to remove the Bible from public schools by stating, “In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that (if we remove the Bible from schools) we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them for the Divine Book (Bible) above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of (our governments)”
The Bible which has been the primary source of public laws has now been removed from public view. In 1962, the Supreme Court ordered the separation of religious principles from education, and in 1963, they removed Bible reading from schools and said the Bible could damage a child psychologically. Since then, our society has gone downhill dramatically and violent crime has gone up 450 – 500 percent.
Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” (Exodus 20:20)
Sin has a feared enemy: the fear of God. The fear of God is not the only a remedy for sin, but it is a potent vaccine. Sin and the fear of God cannot coexist for long. The fear of God extinguishes sin’s combustible character. The fear of God repels sin and keeps it at bay. This is why the devil attempts to devalue the fear of God. He knows if we do not take seriously the fear factor of our heavenly Father, then we are exposed to sin’s influence. Without the fear of God, we are set up for serious sin problems. Cultures crumble without a moral fabric, flush with the fear of God. Families fall into severe dysfunction when the fear of God is not lived out or understood. Individual lives lose their meaning and purpose when the fear of God is placed on the shelf.
God’s remedy for crime is the fear of Him.
I just really touched the surface as there are a lot of other areas to look at.
Some Final Thoughts:
- God has given us some practical rules to live by and if we do, life will be a lot better.
- We need to reduce or remove things that promote crime or tempt us to do evil such as pornography
- We need to change the way we view punishment. It should be severe enough so that others will see and decide not to do the crime.
- We need to bring back the knowledge of God. The fear of God is the best deterrent to reduce crime.
Soaring Into Heaven 