Will They Turn the Other Cheek? Decision Making and Victim’s Religious Self-Identification

This paper examines the implications for potential victims of crime through religious self- identification. If a criminal can choose between an unidentified victim and a religiously self-identified individual, all else equal whom does he choose to victimize? We use religious self-identification to indicate that a person is a believer of Pascal’s Wager while the criminal does not subscribe to the wager. We then derive game-theoretic decision matrices to depict the potential payoffs to a victim from resisting or conceding to the criminal activity. A similar analysis is conducted from the criminal’s perspective to determine who to victimize. This analysis helps sheds light upon the decision of religiously motivated suicidal action and the decision of whom to victimize.