Investigating the Relationship between Feeling Secure and Social Capital of the Citizens in Zahedan City

Nowadays, urban spaces are a component for occurrence of urban anomalies and consequently the lack of security occurrence in cities. Therefore, identifying factors which cause fear and anxiety for citizens is a necessary measure. The present study is meant to investigate the relationship between feeling secure and social capital of the citizens in Zahedan City and strategies to promote security in this city.

the present study is descriptive-analytical one conducted using library and field studies. The main part of doing this research was survey. The population of the research included citizens residing in Zahedan for more than 15 years. The sample of the study was selected using multi-stage cluster sampling and also using the Cochran formula the sample size included 382 participants. The data were obtained from survey method and standard and a researcher-made questionnaire which its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha equaled as (α =0.94). To test the hypotheses and analyzing the data, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression were employed.

the findings of the study indicate that the correlation between citizen's feeling secure and their social-economic statuses, social disorder, social capital and understanding the amount of occurrence of crimes is significant in such a way that the degree of citizen's feeling secure is dependent on their sex and the literacy level. In evaluating the amount of social capital of variables of social support and social trust are positive effects, in contrast to variables of risk and threats and understanding the amount of occurrence of crimes are negative effects on the degree of citizen's feelingsecure.

The degree of citizen's feelingsecurein general indicates a mean lower than moderate level. The social capital situation between citizens is also significantly low and lower than the moderate level in such a way that indices of risk and threat and after that social trust and social support indicate the highest correlation with citizen's feeling secure.