Crime and Justice Situation: Laws and Legislations 

Main Characteristics

Although the main characteristics of crime in Iran and the emergence of new criminal trends have been discussed in previous sections, there are a few other issues which are important enough to merit more attention. One, when all the criminal acts, which have been committed for various reasons, are classified, the three main causes are made obvious. These causes are drug abuse, poverty and class polarization, and the growing number of psychological problems and disorder.

It has been noted that around 60% of inmates in prisons around the country are those arrested for drug-related crimes. Likewise, it has been mentioned that an independent estimation of poverty puts the figure between 30 to 35% of the total population and the Gini Coefficient, an indicator of inequality, has remained above 0.4 for many years now. This is an indication of a wide gap between the rich minority and the poor majority.

These causes have strong correlations with rapid urbanization which, by itself, is a by product of Iran's integration into the world capitalist market. In a sense, the "Dialectics of Dislocation and Profit" discussed in the beginning of this report can also be applied to gain understanding of criminal trends and the roots of crime in the country; however, with two considerations in mind. First, the profit discussed in the title of this analytical model directly benefits different levels of the drug gang hierarchy, albeit unevenly. But the profit used in the same model to explain the rapid growth of crime is both a direct and indirect output. In other words, while a hierarchy directly benefits from crimes committed for economic gains, the rate of crime increases at the same time. This is due to the mentality of gaining profit in society at large and which have led to dislocation in certain groups; hence, in turn, increasing the potential for committing other crimes which are not directly related to economic gains but are by products of dislocation itself.

The state of the prisons in Iran is a challenge in itself, though it is linked to some of the problems of the justice system. As have been presented through Table 1, the number of those jailed for drug-related crimes (dealers and addicts) from 1979 to 2003 was 2,556,143 individuals, an average of 106,509 per annum. From 1989 to 2003, an annual average of 130803 drug-related crimes has been committed.

In 2004-05, there were 136,427 prisoners (convicts) under the administration of the prisons authority; an unknown number of detainees under temporary arrest (estimate of 210,000) waiting for their court verdicts as well as unknown numbers of prisoners in the jails of various security organizations not under auspices of the Iran Prison Organizations. The known figure represents 490 prisoners per 100,000 of the population, which places the country among the six countries of the world with the highest incarceration rates. Over 95 percent of prisoners are men, which mean that prisoners compose about 1 percent of the male population. The very large number of accused detained in prison awaiting trials, which creates problems for the rights of the accused, contributes to the overcrowding of the prisons and is costly for the state

One major problem faced by the administration of justice in Iran is the overloading of courts with cases. Figures concerning the disaggregated cases that are annually cleared at the public, criminal and courts of Appeal show the extensive growth of courts' backlogs. From 2000 - 2004, an enormous backlog of 6,000,000 were pending at the courts thus creating a serious bottleneck for the administration of justice in Iran. This in turn caused the procrastination of the proceedings, some of which dragging for months and years, entangling those citizens who referred to the courts.

Human trafficking

Evidence indicates a growing trafficking of human beings, into and from Iran, run by criminal rings. Recent newspaper reports, supported by the declarations of judicial and law enforcement officials, acknowledged the existence of organized criminal networks involved in the trafficking of narcotics, human beings, and small arms. In this context, of particular concern are reports of trafficking of children (Afghans, as well as Iranians) from Iran to the Gulf Region littoral states for both camel riding/racing and sexual exploitation, as well as from Iran to Pakistan and Afghanistan for drug trafficking. Due to its peculiar geographical location as a bridge between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, human beings are both trafficked into Iran from Afghanistan, and trafficked from Iran to the Arabian Peninsula and the southern Mediterranean Region. Further, the lower risk associated with trafficking of human beings compared to smuggling of narcotics represents a very attractive business alternative to drug trafficking bands in control of the southern drug smuggling routes.

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