Evaluating the Relationship between Personality Traits of Educated Individuals and Crime among Students and Prisoners in Shiraz City, Iran

Crime is an act against social order or common rules and values. Such rules and values are derived from the cultural and social thoughts, beliefs, and conditions of that society. Researchers have always been thinking about how they can reduce such anti-community acts. Therefore, the extant study aimed to evaluate the relationship between personality traits of educated individuals and crime among students and prisoners in Shiraz City, Tehran. This was applied research that was conducted by using the descriptive-correlational method. The data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population of the study comprised all prisoners in the prisons of Shiraz and students of Shiraz University. The statistical sample size was measured based on the Cochrane formula (n=243; 161 students and 82 prisoners). In inferential statistics, data analysis was done using the Pearson correlation test and regression through SPSS16 software. The obtained results indicated that educated individuals believe that good personality traits could effectively decrease the crime rate and help people minimize committing a crime.