The Role Played by Endowment to Prevent Crimes and Being a Victim of Crimes

One of the doctrines in Islamic criminal policy, which plays an important role to prevent crimes, is the institution of Endowment (waqf) and promotion of the culture of endowment. Study of various aspects of endowment, in particular given the discovered deeds of endowment which are in fact reports made of Islamic societies, proves the claim that one of the functions of endowment is to prevent crimes and being victim of crimes. The function of endowment is not limited to the period before occurrence of crime; even after it, it may play an important role to decrease criminal population, make reconciliation between criminal and his victim, and correct or even cure the criminals. In the present article,some aspects of such functions are studied.