Comparative Analysis of Factors Affecting the Law-breaking Tendency Amongst The Iranians

According to various statistics, researches, and polls, the rate of law-breaking in Iran is high. In this study, we seek to identify the factors affecting the violation of the law among the provinces of Iran. The theoretical framework of the research is based on theories of deviance and social development. Also, the explanatory factors of law-breaking were divided into two categories: attitudinal factors and structural factors. Then, Chalabi's theory of behavior function has been used to identify and explain combinations of factors affecting the law-breaking among the Iranians. Our research approach was the comparative-fuzzy analysis and due to the thematic and theoretical scope of the study, we used the secondary data analysis technique. The data were analyzed with the use of SPSS and FSQCA software. Based on the results, by examining the causal conditions affecting lawlessness in all provinces of the country, two paths (combination) leading to a tendency towards law-breaking were observed. In the first path, four conditions of the tendency to low order, social confusion, literacy, and unemployment rate combined led to a tendency towards breaking the law. However, in the second path, we had the five conditions of feeling justice, the tendency to low order, social confusion, literacy, and urbanization. Also, the total compatibility coefficient in these two causal paths was equal to 0.95. This compatibility with a coverage index of 0.59 indicates the theoretical and experimental importance of these two paths.