The Relationship between Social capital and Youth Crime, Case Study: Youth the city of Yazd

Crime and criminal behavior is one of the critical issues in Iran society. Social capital as a crucial factor in the cause and prevention of crime and criminal behavior, can help us to explain crime and criminal behavior. Using a theoretical framework based on Bourdieu and Putnam's theory and previous research, 7 hypotheses were developed. To test the hypothesis, a sample of 380 young people between 18 and 29 years old with a multi-stage random sampling has been selected from all regions of Yazd city. Sampling was based on Morgan's table. Results showed that there are significant difference between male and female in criminal behavior, and also there is a significant difference between of youth criminal behavior based on occupational classes for parents. The results of multiple regressions revealed that five variables, satisfaction and intimacy in community, participation in crime prevention in neighborhood, social network, social trust, father's education and mother's education in general have explain 32 percent of change in youth criminal behavior.