Effects of Poverty, Unemployment, and Urbanization on Committing Property Crimes in Iran

Crime Economy as an interdisciplinary subject، considering as a controversial issue. Criminal activities as undesirable phenomena are the outcome of socio- economic factors. Regarding the importance of crimes in the different societies، many studies have tried to explain the main causes of crimes. This study uses econometrics methodology of panel data and data of 30 provinces in Iran for the period of 2006 to2008 was collected to analyze the impact of some economic factors such as poverty، unemployment، and urbanization on crimes such as overdraw، stealing، and embezzlement -firstly، they were separated and then by combining them in a unique index- as the proxy variable for crime against property. Estimation of the chosen model in present study indicates that the rate of impact of the three independent variables on the crime variable is significant in Iran. As a result، from the three explaining variables poverty، unemployment، and urbanization، unemployment has the most considerable impact on crimes against property.