Religion innanför murarna : En undersökning av internerades användande och utövande av religion

Sammanfattning: Despite significant changes in the Swedish prison system during the middle of the 20th century that reduced the church's influence within the institution, religious personnel in charge of spiritual care have remained a part of the prison workforce. Today, around 170 priests, deacons, and imams work within correctional facilities throughout the nation. However, few researchers have examined whether personnel in charge of spiritual care play an integral part in the inmates' lives or whether religion, in general, constitutes a significant part of everyday life for inmates or whether it is used as a means of coping in Swedish prisons. This research aims to broaden the understanding of these aspects. The research method used in order to examine these aspects was a survey that 103 inmates from six correctional facilities in Sweden completed. The findings were processed using both a bivariate and content analysis which was then analyzed using Talcott Parsons' AGIL paradigm and Thomas Luckmann's theory of invisible religion. The results show that a majority of the inmates participate in religious activities organized at the prisons and that close to 50 percent are in contact with religious personnel. In addition, approximately a third of the inmates practice religion by themselves or with inmates with the same religious background. Moreover, a similar number of inmates used religion as a means of coping. Variables such as the inmates' age, ethnicity, past experiences of religion, their parents' religious background, and their own religious affiliation proved to impact inmates' likelihood of practicing religion and using religion as a positive coping mechanism. The AGIL paradigm and secularization as defined by Luckmann proved to be useful theoretical frameworks, and the findings generated by the analysis were mainly in accordance with findings from previous research within the field in an international and Scandinavian context.