Religion as a motivational basis for prisoners’ reintegration efforts

Abstract

The need to conform to the norms of society is fulfilled by one’s internal thought processes, which become increasingly autonomous behavioural influences as one ages. As a consequence, the ability to influence the environment is steadily decreasing. The consequence of the practice of religion may be precisely that, in so far as it forms an integral part of one’s inner convictions, the individual’s decision-making mechanism is placed on a new moral basis. From a psychological point of view, the consequence of the practice of religion may be the simultaneous functioning of the socalled horizontal conscience (man-human) and the vertical conscience (God-human). For the believer, there is usually a process behind the behaviour in which the vertical conscience intersects with one’s decision points. Although decisions may be interrupted in the vertical dimension, the protective effect of religion is a thesis already recognised by scientific psychology, and religion therefore has a place in the scientific professional discourse on reintegration.