Petty Thieves, Their Individual and Social Features Case Study: Ilam Province

Everyday increasing petty thefts makes the necessity of identifying individual and social features of thieves inevitable. Therefore the present research deals with the study of individual and social features of these kinds of petty thieves. This research is of applied studies type and its intended audience is petty thieves’ case files. To collect the required data and information, case files, credible documents and sources pertaining 380 petty thieves in the Theft Office of Ilam Criminal Investigation Department, Police 110, police stations of different townships of Ilam were used. The statistical methods used in this research include “descriptive statistics” which were described through social sciences software package. Findings resulted from describing the status of petty thieves in Ilam indicate that the absolute majority (%99.2) of petty thieves in Ilam Province have been men. %60.8 of them has been between 21-31 years old. %93.9 of the arrested petty thieves has been unemployed. The study of the thieves based on the theft tools show that %25 of them has been arrested on charges of inside-vehicle thefts. %13.7 of the thieves has been arrested on charges of stealing incomplete construction tools, %12.9 on charges of stealing power cables and wires, %12.6 on charges of cattle theft. %66.8 of the arrested thieves had different criminal records in the Judiciary System. %54.5 of the thieves were addicts, %99.5 were physically healthy.