Efficacy Assessment of Iran's Legislative Policies on Crime Prevention with Substantive United Nations Criteria: A Comparative Analysis of Turkey's Experience

Sohani, Javid; Saffari, , Ali; Najafi Tavana, Ali

doi:10.48300/jlr.2026.553175.3053

Efficacy Assessment of Iran's Legislative Policies on Crime Prevention with Substantive United Nations Criteria: A Comparative Analysis of Turkey's Experience

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

javid sohani ¹

, Ali Saffari ²

Ali Najafi Tavana ¹

¹ Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

² Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

10.48300/jlr.2026.553175.3053

Abstract

Objective:
This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate Iran's "Crime Prevention Law" from both theoretical and practical perspectives and to conduct a comparative analysis with Turkey's successful model.
Method:
This study utilized a mixed-methods approach. On one hand, the level of compliance of Iran's "Crime Prevention Law enacted in 2015" and Turkey's "National Crime Prevention Strategy (2017)" with the seven substantive United Nations principles was measured. On the other hand, the statistical trends of theft and assault crimes before and after the enactment of these laws were analyzed based on data from the Iranian Statistical Center and the Turkish Statistical Institute.
Findings:
Content analysis revealed that Iran's law lacks compliance with the key principles of "evidence-based approach," "development-oriented approach," "justice-based approach," "accountability," and "non-penal prevention," and only has partial compliance in "participation." In contrast, Turkey's strategy shows high compliance with these principles. The gap in statistics is evident: Iran experienced a 323% increase in theft rates (2006-2023) and stabilization of assault cases at around 591,000 annually, whereas Turkey experienced a 21.6% decrease in home burglaries and a 25% decrease in street fights in pilot areas.

Keywords

Crime Prevention

Crime Prevention Law

United Nations Principles

Comparative Analysis

Crime Statistics