Mighty Like A River: The Black Protestant Church and Violence in Black Communities

Little empirical attention has been given to the link between Black Protestant adherence and crime, despite significant public and political interest in the correlates of offending in Black communities, as well as both historical treatments of the Black church and prominent sociological theories pointing to Black Protestantism as having mitigated social programs. This article concludes with a discussion of the ongoing public debate about the future of the Black Protestant church, and directions for future research are suggested. (Publisher abstract modified)