Over a period of years, a certain town observed that the correlation between x, the number of people attending churches, and y, the number of people in the city jail, was r = 0.90. does going to church cause people to go to jail? explain why or why not.

correlation does not prove causation (important to remember, especially with medical studies that correlate behavior and disease). The "famous" example is the rooster crowing and the sun rising in the morning. the rooster's crow does not cause the sun to rise. Unless there is some explanation of how going to church causes going to jail, or going to jail causes going to church, all you can say is that there is correlation