Should Religious Fundamentalists be Held Culpable for Their Crimes? An Analysis of the Psychological and Societal Effects of Hyper-Religiosity

My research was used to determine if religiously-motivated criminal offenders should be held culpable and how offenders should be punished in a court of law. Some who commit religiously motivated crimes do not do so of their own volition (e.g., those born into a cult), some are not legally competent to stand trial, and some qualify to claim insanity by both legal and psychological standards. Psychological and social pressures exerted by cults (e.g., deindividuation) can interfere with moral and legal reasoning of the offender. I argue that only those individuals with awareness of the legality of their actions and ability to freely choose their actions should be held culpable for religiously-motivated crimes.