Measurement of Security Feeling on the Part of Tehrani Citizens and Determining its Relationship with the Public Trust and Social Capital

This survey research primarily aims at evaluating level of security feeling on the part of Tehrani citizens with focus on its major constituents, i.e. physical, financial, social and family security. Secondly, it aims at identifying the factors contributing to it. Thirdly, it is aimed at clarifying the relationship between security feeling and the other two key variables: public trust and social capital. N=3400 were chosen through multistage cluster sampling method from among Tehrani citizens of the 22 municipality zones ranging from 15 to 75.The research variables were measured through using three self-made criteria: security feeling and factors contributing to it, public trust and social capital. The three above-mentioned scales were tested on a group of 100 people before its final implementation, and then its reliability was calculated through using Cronbach's alpha test. Then the collected data was calculated by using various statistical tests such as descriptive method, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, T test, correlation and regression. The certain achievements revealed the following: firstly, the rate of security feeling is at the middle level, and there is significant statistical difference between the average of security feeling on the part of citizens and the four aforesaid constituents. Secondly, there are five factors contributing to security feeling: individual/mental factors, factors associated with the police task (establishing order and discipline), media factors, and factors related to the field of social structure. Thirdly, there is significant correlation between security feeling on the part of citizens and public trust (both horizontal and vertical trust), and social capital. This correlation is in such a way that from which cause and effect relationship can be deducted.