Measuring Sense of Security in Urban Neighborhoods with an Emphasis on Social Parameters (Case Study: The 6th Region of Isfahan Municipality)

Introduction One of the ways of provisional control and crimes prevention and, therefore, increase in the sense of security is to reduce the chance of crime by strengthening social relationships at the level of urban neighborhoods. Many theorists have commented on the relation between social factors and the level of the sense of security. Merry realized that the residents who lacked any kind of bond or social connection were more afraid of crimes. According to Jacob's theory, the feeling affiliated with the neighborhood and being committed to it plays a more important role relative to the presence of police in controlling the situation of the neighborhood and its security. In addition, Jan Gehl believes that monitoring urban spaces via increase in the residents' presence in the public or in other words, unofficial monitoring is the major condition to provide security. In relation to density, Georg Simmel believes that as the population density of cities increases, the intensity of social control decreases. Therefore, the sense of loneliness and anonymity of citizens is increased and their individuality is threatened. In fact, according to the approach of the sociology of security, one cannot analyze security alone as a situation without communicating with its social context. Therefore, by studying theoretical foundations of the research, this study has considered three social indicators (identity, social monitoring and population density) as the theoretical model of the research. The aim of this study is to investigate the sense of security to measure the role of social factors in the sense of security. This helps us classify neighborhoods in terms of social vulnerability and present suggestions to strengthen social factors to increase the sense of security in neighborhoods of District 6 of Isfahan Municipality.   Methodology The statistical population of this study is 13 neighborhoods of District 6 in Isfahan Municipality. According to Cochran's formula, a sample size of 382 subjects was considered and to select the samples in statistical population, cluster random sampling was used. To determine validity, related experts were interviewed and to determine reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used. The results show that the sense of security and social indicators are acceptable at alpha coefficients of 0.852 and 0.846, respectively. To analyze data, SPSS, Excel, and ARCGIS were employed. To investigate the indicators, a number of items were designed in the form of Likert scale and they were distributed among neighborhoods based on the obtained sample size.   Results and Discussion The sense of security in District 6 of Isfahan Municipality   Table 2. the indicator of citizens' sense of security in District 6 Indicator Test value=3   Evaluation of indicator t-value p-value Mean difference Confidence interval 0.95 lower limit­ upper limit Sense of security   -17.83 0.000 -0.707 -0.78 -0.62 Low   Source: Findings of the study   The role of social factors in the sense of security   Table 4. the status of security of neighborhoods in terms of social factors Factor Test value=3   Evaluation of indicator t-value p-value Mean difference Confidence interval 0.95 lower limit­ upper limit Social -3.727 0.000 -0.143 -0.21 -0.60 Weak Source: Findings of the study   Table 5. significance of the relation between social factors and the sense of security Explanation Sense of security Physical factor Sense of security Correlation coefficient Significance level The number of observations   1   0.227** 0.001 195 Social factor Correlation coefficient Significance level The number of observations 0.151* 0.035 195   1 Source: Findings of the study *Significant at 95%, ** significant at 99%   the difference of social factors affecting the sense of security in neighborhoods of the district 6.   Table 6. social factors among neighborhoods Factors Variance Sum of squares Degree of freedom Mean square f-value p-value   Social Inter-group 31.549 12 5.691 57.357 0.000 Intra-group 33.540 182 0.064 Total 369.090 194     Table 7. Classification of neighborhoods in homogeneous groups based on social factor of security Significance level of classes at 0.05 alpha level Neighborhoods 3 2 1     1.751 Shahid Keshvari     2.349 Abshar     2.430 Hezar Jarib     2.565 Kooye Emam   2.568   Ayineh Khaneh   2.903   Sa'adat Abad   2.985   Mosalla Mosque   3.008   Feyz 3.199     Hemmat Abad 3.233     Denart 3.356     Takht-e Foolad 3.375     Radan 3.408     Fizidan Source: Findings of the study   Conclusion  Results of the study showed that the sense of security in District 6 is very low and social characteristics affect the sense of security in District 6 of Isfahan Municipality. According to the results of Tukey's range test, it could be said that Shahid Keshvari, Abshar, Hezar Jarib, and Kooye Emam neighborhoods are classified, respectively, in the weak class. Ayineh Khaneh, Sa'adat Abad, Masjed Mosalla, and Feyz neighborhoods are in the middle class, and Hemmat Abad, Denart, Takht-e Foolad, Radan and Fizidan are classified in a better class in terms of social factors. Some strategies to strengthen social relations in line with increase in the sense of security especially in vulnerable neighborhoods are stated as follows: - To focus on historical and cultural heritage in neighborhoods for increase in the sense of belonging and to design new elements, to strengthen natural territories and specify the border of neighborhoods using objective and subjective symbols, and to increase neighborhood bindings via strengthening neighborhood relationships. - To strengthen the sense of public control through promoting the culture of accountability and controlling space by the citizens. This is to increase the possibility of supervision by designing buildings overlooking public areas, to install benches and platforms for sitting in susceptible areas and routes, and to increase public monitoring through creation of recreation spaces in neighborhoods. - To divide neighborhoods into sub-neighborhood units, to direct planning to prevent extra vacancy of spaces in special hours, especially at night or overcrowding of spaces, to reduce population density via preventing the spread of vertical development and preventing the microfilming of neighborhood textures by adopting non-violent policies.