Identifying the Environmental Factors Contributing to the Occurrence of Crime and Anomic Behavior (Case Study: Urban Deteriorated Spaces of Borazjan City)

Cities, as the focused centers for human residence and settlement, are faced with various issues and problems. The high rate of crime and anomic behavior are characteristics of today’s major cities. Fear of crime and anomic behavior is perceived as the most important reasons leading to a decline in the use of public spaces in cities by its residents. According to the mutual relation between environment and behavior, clearly, different characteristics of urban spaces can both significantly increase or decrease the rate of crime in a city. The purpose of this paper is to identify the physical factors and parameters which underlie crime and anomic behavior in Borazjan urban deteriorated spaces. The aim of this research is to identify, and therefore, help eliminate these effective environmental factors and reach higher level of safety and regularity in public spaces of deteriorated areas of Borazjan city. According to the results of this research, the most effective factors that give rise to crime in public spaces are physical disturbance, functional disorders and confusion of meaning and identity.