Religious Discourse Order and Criminal Justice

Religion is a collection of practical and moral beliefs and orders that are set for the guidance and advancement of humans. Due to the fact that adherence to religious teachings leads to the prevention of sin, experts believe that religion has a preventive function in social fields and in forms such as crime and deviance. Although the relationship between religion and crime is one of the most challenging issues in criminology, criminological findings have often emphasized the preventive role of religion. However, religious-historical cuts show that in some cases, eclectic interpretations of religion lead to crime. Thus, this research aims to describe, interpret and explain the thoughts of criminals with religious eclecticism by using Fairclough's discourse analysis method. The findings of this research show that eclectic criminals, emphasizing divine duty, ideological traditionalism, holy jihad, and ideological pressure, on the one hand, seek to create Sharia discourse, and on the other hand, reproduce Sharia-based domination relations. However, as a final assessment, it should be said that eclectic criminals commit crimes by misunderstanding religion and misunderstanding religious teachings. Therefore, in these cases, the crime-causing religious ideology is the result of religious epistemological eclecticism, and this cannot negate the positive function of religion in crime prevention.