Investigating the relationship between Internet addiction and crime tendency in cyberspace (case study; Urmia citizens).

Today, along with the development of information and communication technology, types of crimes occur in a cyber space where the discussion around it is not worthless.Therefore, this research seeks to investigate the relationship between Internet addiction and the tendency to commit crimes in cyberspace. The research method used in this study is descriptive survey. The statistical population of this study is Internet users aged over 18 years old. The sample size is 384 according to the Morgan table. A stratified random sampling method has been used due to the existence of 5 urban areas in Urmia.To collect data, the Yang Internet addiction inventory (1998) and researcher-made cybercrime questionnaire have been used. SPSS 21 software was used to analyze the data and research data. Using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential indices (tests Pearson, single sample t, t independent groups, one way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance and post hoc test) were answered to the main questions and sub-questions of the research. The overall results of the research showed that there is a relationship between addiction to the Internet and the tendency to commit crimes in the cyberspace among the citizens of Urmia. Other findings from this study also showed that there was a significant relationship between addiction to Internet and all components of cybercrime, including hacking personal information, publishing immoral files, violating intellectual property, and disseminating the virus in cyberspace. According to the results of this study, it can be said that families, schools, universities and provincial media can play a significant role in eliminating Internet addiction damage and preventing crime in cyberspace.