"A calm, persuasive, and chilling look at a highly emotional topic. Its reasonable tone stands to be celebrated, particularly given the contentious nature of [this] topic in public discourse.... This book is a critical read for leaders in religion and in social justice who are looking to help uproot crime more effectively."
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ForeWord Reviews "Rarely does a book come along that startles like
The Devil You Know does. Elicka Peterson Sparks confronts a touchy subject (religion) and analyzes its impact on criminal behavior and criminal justice in an honest and courageous fashion. This clearly and beautifully written book connects religion and crime through a number of social forces: politics, media, education, the economy, human rights, and the law (notably the US Supreme Court). No matter how surprising the conclusions, this book is recommended reading for all Americans."
--Bonnie Berry, PhD, director, Social Problems Research Group
"Why is the United States such a violent nation filled with so much crime? The startling answer proposed by criminologist Peterson Sparks is that it's due to the tremendous impact of the Bible and Christianity on the culture, institutions, and political life of the United States. She specifically indicts Christian theocratic nationalism for this, with its hateful, xenophobic, war-mongering, gun-toting, misogynistic, child-abusing, gay-bashing, get-tough-on-crime, right-wing nuts. This is the devil in disguise we already know, finally exposed for the evil it is. This book is a masterpiece! It should scare the hell out of you."
--John W. Loftus, author of
Why I Became an Atheist and editor of
Christianity Is Not Great: How Faith Fails "In
The Devil You Know, Peterson Sparks bravely, and in delightful prose, asks a crucial question that many other scholars either feared asking or did not know to ask--is religiosity in the United States related to criminality? The argument she poses cannot be ignored and has opened the door for vital future research."
--Hector A. Garcia, Psy.D., assistant professor, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and author of
Alpha GodRichard A. Lovett
Elicka Peterson Sparks is associate professor of criminology and director of the honors program in the Department of Government and Justice Studies at Appalachian State University. In addition to scholarly articles and contributions to textbooks in criminology, she is coauthor of the forthcoming book Intimate Partner Violence: Effective Procedure, Response and Policy with Kit Gruelle. Her work has been cited in the New York Times and she has consulted on several documentaries, including PBS's Blind Spot: Murder by Women and HBO s Private Violence.