Examining the Lighting Situation in Reducing Urban Crime with an Emphasis on the CPTED Approach The area of study: Kianpars – Ahvaz

Urban spaces are the environment of human life and its activities. Crimes are committed as a destructive social phenomenon by man in these spaces. Among the major problems in urban spaces that affect the quality of life and the sense of security of citizens is the occurrence of urban crime, and factors such as urban planning, design, sprawl and social –economics, play an effective role in its occurrence or deterrence. Kianpars neighborhood can always face dangers like urban crime, depending on its location.

This article is a descriptive-analytic one. In the descriptive section, statistics and information extracted from the Statistical Yearbook, the supreme court of the Khuzestan and police department of the study area were used. Finally, for analyzing the data, GIS and SPSS softwares have been used to analyze the relationship between the two factors of crime incidence and brightness levels Within the Kianpars area.

Investigations show that criminals act reasonably well in choosing the time and place of the crime and select the most appropriate and least risky locations and areas that are poorly lit for criminal activity and there is an inverse relationship between crime and light.

Overall results show that out of 275 crimes in public and private spaces, 200 cases occurred in the optical range No.1 with the least amount of light and 19 cases occurred in the optical range No.4 with the highest brightness, indicating a significant and inverse relationship between the amount of light and the crime number, as well as studies show that poor lighting in Kianpars has led to a decrease in security and incidence of some urban crime, and overall the lighting system in the study area has been assessed as inefficient and inconsistent with the CPTED principles.