social analysis of theft in iran

this is a summary of an extended research on the sociological study of theft in iran. the main purpose of the study has been to identify and analyze the social correlates of theft rate, which, admittedly, has been increasing in iran in recent years. the research question was: “what are the causes of theft rate variations in various provinces of iran?” the research unit of the study is the province and all the figures from all the provinces of iran during the years 1991 to 1996 were studied and analyzed, using a comparative method based on secondary data. theoretically, the study has been based on some aspects of social disorganization and durkhaim’s anomie theories. path analysis results indicate that social control, population and addiction variables are the most important variables, and in that order, explaining theft in iran.