A deep correlational research project rooted in discovering a connection between violent religious delusions and violent crime. As you read, you begin to understand the depth and complexity of this topic. I am not just looking at all patients with religious delusions, I am looking specifically into patients who are U.S citizens, biological adults, and attempting to find those who suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. My goal with this project is to find a potential connection between these two topics by utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data to find out if religious delusions do increase the rates of violent crime in America. 

Sydney Puljan

AP Capstone Diploma Candidate, Class of 2026

Spiritual Psychosis: Spiritual psychosis typically involves delusional spiritual beliefs that have no basis in reality. This form of psychosis may also involve additional psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations, paranoia, personality changes, and confusion.

Religious delusions: A person with religious delusions may feel sure that a religious figure or deity is speaking to them or that they embody a religious figure. 

Religious Mania: unconventional, outrageous, unexpected, or unpredictable behavior linked to religious or spiritual pursuits. 

Spirituality: the recognition of a feeling or sense or belief that there is something greater than myself, something more to being human than sensory experience and that the greater whole of which we are part is cosmic or divine.

Religion: the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods.

"ideas about the relationship between science and religion"

Delusion: a false belief or judgment about external reality, held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, occurring especially in mental conditions.

Hallucinations: false perception of objects or events involving your senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Hallucinations seem real, but they're not. Chemical reactions and/or abnormalities in your brain cause hallucinations.

Initially, the data collection process posed an issue. Due to the

researcher's age being below 18, the possibility of interviewing potential violent criminals was

not available as an option for data collection. This was overcome by collecting data online with

credible databases such as the FBI's most wanted criminal database and other databases, such as

criminal mental health and medical records. Additionally, due to the lack of human participants,

the margin of time to conduct research increased, due to the lack of a need for an IRB application

and approval. This addition of time made it possible to conduct individual research on 100

different violent criminals, allowing the initial limitation to be overcome. Due to the data

collection process being conducted online, another limitation was produced. Since there was no

registered lawyer or legal official present for the research process, there are likely to be medical

or mental health records that could not be accessed due to the data being private and inaccessible

to the public, meaning the data collected could be slightly altered if this study included access to

those documents. Additionally, this study was conducted assuming that if a patient was

schizophrenic, the present mental complications had some sort of contribution to the crime.

Additionally,this study was conducted with the assumption that all of the criminals evaluated had

been assessed for their mental conditions, and if not, it was assumed there were no mental

conditions present that could contribute to motivating a violent crime. Additionally, since the

sample size is only 100, the sample size is likely not large enough to represent the entire criminal

population in the United States. Despite these limitations, the data was able to be derived from

databases, and the data collected was unable to provide a significant correlation between violent

crime and violent religious delusions in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

To continue this research in the future and develop a deeper understanding of the role of

schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and religious delusions when it comes to causes for violent

crime, it is important to address the limitations. To improve this project, the next steps could be

personal interviews with violent perpetrators. This would allow for a deeper understanding of

their perspectives and possibly their motives. Access to this data could have a great effect on this

study, allowing for a deeper understanding of the minds of these criminals. Furthermore, an

interview could also determine whether the criminal's mental complications (if present) were a

significant variable as to why they committed the crime. Additionally, including the presence of

a legal official with access to personal government documents, including mental health

evaluations of criminals, could eliminate the possibility of a false assumption that a criminal is

unaffected by mental complications. Finally, increasing the cohort to more accurately represent

the entirety of the population of the United States. This would provide a more accurate insight

into the population to better evaluate the significance of the data in a real-world application

process.

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