Journal of Legal Research

Journal of Legal Research

Reasons for the Decreased Inclination of Citizens to Apprehend Offenders (Case Study: Male Students at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.
3 PhD in Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.
4 PhD Student in Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
Bystander intervention refers to the police-like intervention of ordinary individuals present at a crime scene; as in the operation of "citizen's arrest (Dastgiri-e Shahrvandi)", observing citizens take action to detain perpetrators of a crime. This research, using a survey method and a researcher-made questionnaire, seeks to gauge the attitudes toward factors for avoiding the detention of offenders among 353 male students at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, who were selected as the test basis using the Cochran formula. The research data can be studied in both descriptive and inferential sections. According to the descriptive findings of the research, in the attitude of the target population, the level of avoidance of this intervention is more extensive than the level of willingness to intervene. In this regard, the following factors, in order of importance, had the greatest impact: the bystander’s lack of awareness regarding the choice of reaction type, hope for intervention by other individuals present at the crime scene, fear of blame from others, the insignificance of the crime subject, and fear of injury. In contrast, fear of being reprimanded by the police and the insignificance of the victim’s fate due to them being a stranger had the least impact. The inferential findings also indicate that in the attitude of these individuals, there is a significant correlation between these factors and the type of crime; such that, for example, in the crime of "distribution of synthetic narcotics," fear of injury and fear of blame from others are the most important factors for non-intervention in apprehending offenders. Furthermore, a significant relationship was observed between non-intervention and the type of academic field, such that only students from the Faculty of Law showed a greater sense of civic participation in this regard. In contrast, no significant correlation was observed between the variables of non-intervention and the level of education and marital status.
Keywords

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