Relationship between Norm of Social Reciprocity and Law-breaking among Motorcycle Users in Yazd

Crime, irregularity and fear of insecurity, are the most important determinants of a community's failure to achieve collective goals in the path to individual and social well-being. Hence, to ensure security and prevent anti-social behavior, human societies created a set of rules and norms for monitoring and controlling anti-social behavior. But in all societies, especially developing ones, there are people who ignore these rules. Inattention to these rules can lead to road accidents, high mortality, physical damage, disruption of family after accident, and costly financial damage. According to estimates, in 2020, road traffic accidents will become the third leading cause of death worldwide. In Iran, traffic accidents, has been on an increasing path to the extent that its growth is 10% and the rate of deaths from traffic accidents, is 15 times higher than that of the developed countries. Previous research on the etiology of law breaking among motorcycle users often focused on physical and psychological risk factors. This study aims at explaining the relationship between the norm of reciprocity (as a component of social capital) and violation of traffic rules by motorcycle users based on social capital theory. This study was conducted with descriptive and case-control design. Two groups of motorcycle users (192 law-breakers and 192 law-abiding users) were classified and compared according to driving indices of the police. Law-abiding users were distinguished from law-breakers considering how they obey riding rules such as wearing crash helmet, stopping before the red traffic light, having motorcycle riding license, having necessary policy, and moving in correct line designed for motorcycle users. Low-breakers were those who did not observe the above behaviors, and instead showed behaviors such as careening among cars, riding in sidewalks, and bothering pedestrians. Three traffic experts of the police identified law-abiding and law-breaker users. The subjects were selected using multi-phase cluster random sampling method. The instrument of data collection is a standardized scale called Norm of Reciprocity (NRS). The data was analyzed using independent-samples T-test method. Discussion of Results and Three hundred and eighty-four motorcycle users in two groups of law-abiding users (192) and law-breaking users (192) were investigated. The mean age of law-abiding users was 26.07 and the standard deviation was 8.61, the mean age of law-breaking users was 24.60 and its standard deviation was 7.74. Most of the samples were in the age group of 15-30 year-old. Concerning the percentage of users who had primary education, it was higher among low-breaker users (41.8%) than the other group (32.9%). The groups were relatively similar regarding income, residency, marital status, and purposes of using motorcycles without any significant differences. Concerning the frequency of having experiences of breaking rules, they were different. That is the frequency of violating traffic rules was significantly higher in law-breakers’ group (23.9% compared to 13%). Comparing these groups, level of reciprocity was not similar. Results revealed that there is a significant difference comparing their total social support (01/0 < p).