Women and religious practice before prison: a case study in the Female Prison Unit of Acre

This article aimed to identify and analyze which variables influenced women's religious practice before being arrested in the "Female Prison Unit" (UPF)/Acre State-Brazil. For this purpose, a logistic regression on primary data, obtained through the application of questionnaires/interviews, was used on 146 women already sentenced or awaiting trial at UPF. As a result, the model variables (statistically significant) as determinants in the conduct of that interviewed woman, who said she practiced a religion before being arrested, were: married parents; worked; had children in adolescence; and years of study. Practicing a religion with moral guidance, she did not distinguish principles or values when her pecuniary interest prevailed in an illicit act.