Investigating the role of police management in vandalistic behaviors with an emphasis on the quality of urban environment (Case study: Ilam city)

The excessive occurrence of vandalistic behaviors in urban environment is not only in conflict with the established principles of social order, but also has serious negative psychological and financial effects on citizens. One of the reasons for such behaviors is the quality of the urban environment. On the one hand, police has taken a new community-based approach in recent years, focusing on the potential of the community to reduce crime and violent behavior, and has tried to prevent this phenomenon in urban environment. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the impact of urban environment quality and police management on vandalistic behaviors of citizens of Ilam city.

The present study is applied in terms of its objective and descriptive-correlational in terms of its methodology. The required data is collected using library and field methods with the help of a questionnaire. The statistical population is composed of urban management experts, university professors, and police officers and staff, 164 of whom are randomly selected through random stratified sampling method using Cochran's formula. Data are analyzed by one-sample t-test and correlation (SEM) in SPSS and LISREL software.

The findings indicate that the quality of urban environment with a coefficient of effect of -0.45 has a reversible effect on the vandalistic behavior of citizens in the city of Ilam. The coefficient of effect of police management on vandalistic behaviors is -0.50, so police management has a reverse and significant effect on vandalistic behaviors in Ilam city. Also, the dimensions of urban environment quality and the dimensions of police management have a reverse and significant effect on vandalism in Ilam city.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the low level of urban environment quality and the lack of police management in Ilam city have led to an increase in vandalistic behaviors by citizens.