Spiritual Jewish Criminology: The Basic Premises and the Pyramid

• Date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Yitzhak Ben Yair
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20944693
• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20944693

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2021, Vol. 65(15) 1586 –1606

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20944693

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Article

Spiritual Jewish Criminology:

The Basic Premises and the

Pyramid

Yitzhak Ben Yair1

Abstract

Religion and spiritual traditions entail vast wisdom and knowledge which have proved

their productivity in achieving criminal rehabilitation, crime desistance, and crime

prevention. Unfortunately, the literature on their role is relatively scarce and was

not, until recently, regarded as part of mainstream criminology. This study used a

hermeneutic phenomenological approach in which 39 participants were interviewed and

many of the religious scriptures selected at their recommendation were analyzed. The

findings reveal three central and unique themes that deal with the purpose of creation,

human nature, and the question of free will. Through these premises, this study suggests

that Spiritual Jewish criminology, a faith-based theory stemming from Jewish scriptures,

offers a universal paradigm that explains a person’s life as a spiritual journey, completed

according to the Pyramid Model. The pyramid is built on two axes that describe a

person’s desirable movement: the first ranges from egocentrism to altrocentrism, while

the second ranges from materialism to the spiritual. The study’s discussion deals with

the Pyramid Model’s ability to explain the causes of delinquency, the onset of a criminal

career, and the way out of this criminal world through treatment and rehabilitation.

Keywords

alternative criminology, religion, materialism, spirituality, egocentrism, altrocentrism

Introduction

The integration of religion and spiritual traditions in the research of social sciences,

psychology, and, especially, criminology has grown significantly in the past two

1Zefat Academic College, Zefat, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Yitzhak Ben Yair, Department of Behavioral Science Zefat Academic College, 11 Jerusalem, Zefat, 13206,

Israel.

Email: izikcc@gmail.com

944693IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X20944693International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyBen Yair

research-article2020

Ben Yair 1587

decades and seems to have become more common and accepted (Paloutzian, 2017).

Some studies have examined religion and spirituality as a journey, a phenomenon, a

religious experience, or a process of the human search for the sacred (Batson &

Schoenrade, 1991; Graham et al., 2008; Paloutzian, 2017). Other studies have

described how these variables contribute to people’s lives in many areas such as the

improvement and maintenance of mental and physical health (Seybold & Hill, 2001).

In the field of criminology, religion and spirituality have been shown to contribute to

the rehabilitation of offenders as well as to various crime prevention and desistance

initiatives (Baier & Wright, 2001; Giordano et al., 2008; Ronel, 2000). Despite focus-

ing on religion and spirituality, these studies have ignored the religious-spiritual para-

digm and the premises of common human behavior behind religion and spiritual

traditions, thus undermining their ability to offer an independent explanation of human

phenomena. It should be noted that this tendency in scholarship illustrates a certain

disconnect of academia from the general population; a worldwide poll carried out in

2010 in over 230 countries found that 84% of the world’s population live their lives

according to a religious-spiritual paradigm, in other words, they belong to a religious

group (Pew Research Center, 2012).

Researchers have claimed that the discipline of criminology started developing in

the late 18th century out of different schools of thought that served as a foundation for

the paradigms, models, hypotheses, and theories relating to its central questions (Cote,

2002). For example, one of the most fundamental questions in criminology is whether

the nature of humans is good or bad. The discussion around this issue is usually based

on the thoughts of secular thinkers like Rousseau (1965) who considers humans to be

good by their nature: “Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of

the world but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man. (p. 11)”. Hobbes (1965),

on the other hand, sees humans as evil by nature. He explains that equality between

human beings causes insecurity, as their hope to achieve their aspirations in the world

leads to war (a state, according to Hobbes, in which there is no common power, thus

causing everyone to fear it):

And from this diffidence of one another, there is no way for any man to secure himself,

so reasonable, as Anticipation; that is by force, or wiles, to master the persons of all me

he can, so long, till he see no other power great enough to endanger him. (p. 95)

Another view that opposes the ideas of innate good and bad and innate moral princi-

ples is expressed by Locke (1961), according to whom the human brain at birth is a

“tabula rasa”, devoid of knowledge or any particular inclination impelling a person

toward good or evil.

Judaism’s view of human nature is complex and cannot be summarized in this

paper. For example, one claim found in the Bible relates to the evil nature of humans:

“and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s

sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). On the

other hand, there is an argument in the book of Ecclesiastes attesting to the good of

human nature: “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they