The Implementation of Petty Theft Prevention in Qom Province

Among the types of thefts, petty thefts, including financial crimes, are more common than other types of theft. The police, using the latest scientific methods, are trying to take effective preventive measures. The purpose of this study is to identify the police enforcement measures to prevent petty theft in Qom province.

In terms of its objectives this study is of an applied research type and in terms of its nature it is considered as a descriptive-analytic study which has been conducted in qualitative method. The statistical population includes 15police elites who were selected using theoretical saturation method. To assure the validity, the opinions of the professors were employed and to test the reliability, the test-retest, comparability and reproducibility were conducted.

In total, 25 indicators were identified as police enforcement measures in the prevention of petty-theft, out of which 12 indicators (46.15%) were social prevention measures, 8 (30.77%) were law enforcement preventive measures, 4 (15.38%) as situational prevention and 1 (7.69%) as criminal prevention.

In the field of social prevention some cases like informing citizens, in law enforcement prevention the identification and treatment of malicious people and providing adequate and up-to-date training to patrols; in situational prevention inaccessibility of public properties, the installation of cameras and equipment for image monitoring and reconstruction of worn-out textures, and in criminal prevention  the identification professional offenders, identification and intensification of deterrent punishment have been emphasized. Qom police need to provide plans to strengthen identified indicators by focusing on common social indicators in order to effectively prevent petty-theft offenses.