Shouldnt the religious affiliation of the general population be taken into account? It would stand to reason that if in country x where the majority of people are (Insert religion) that the majority of people in prison are of the same religion. I did some digging and I came across these stats for the UK. [quote]Christianity remained the largest group; 59% (33.2 million). This is down 13 percentage points since 2001 when 72% (37.3 million). It is the only group to have experienced a decrease in numbers between 2001 and 2011 despite population growth. The second largest response category in 2011 was no religion. This increased 10 percentage points. Interestingly, Christianity is not down everywhere. Newham, Haringey, Brent, Boston and Lambeth have all shown increases in the Christian population. Over 240,000 people highlighted an 'other religion' on their census form - including 176,632 Jedi Knights.[/quote] I also posted a graph for the stats of the prison systems in the UK. If you look at the graph there seems to be a relationship between country religious beliefs and the beliefs of the inmates. I am actually surprised this wasn't mentioned in the article you posted. I don't see why atheism would be exempted from being more or less moral than any other affiliation. Plus christians cant really talk about sin considering the bible tells that a lot of christians will not be accepted by god or will turn away (Matthew 24).