The role of environment in crime prevention in Mazandaran province

Crime prevention through ecology is based on a simple thinking. The occurrence of various crimes in different societies is largely due to the opportunities available in the environment. Therefore, by making changes in it, an arrangement can be adopted to reduce the incidence of crimes. The purpose of this study is the role of environment on crime prevention in Mazandaran province.

The research is applied in terms of purpose, which was conducted in the field by survey method with correlation analysis and its explanation in the statistical population. The statistical population of the study consists of all commanders and managers of the second (middle) level of the Disciplinary Command of Mazandaran Province in the number of 483 people, which is a statistical sample of 214 people. To collect research data, a researcher-made environmental questionnaire and a researcher-made crime prevention questionnaire were used, which are of a quantitative type. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by professors and respected law enforcement experts and its reliability was obtained using Cronbach's alpha formula of 0.78 and 0.82, respectively. To analyze the data, correlation, regression and Friedman test were used using SPSS software.

The research findings show that environment has a positive and significant effect on crime prevention. Also, environmental dimensions (determining the territory, access control, image of the environment, hardening the target of crime) have a positive and significant effect on crime prevention. According to Friedman test, the highest average was allocated to determining the area and then hardening the target of the crime, the image of the environment and finally access control.

The results indicate that paying attention to the principles and optimal environmental indicators can play a significant role in reducing the incidence of crime.