State Crime; A new Approach to the Analysis of Social Harms (Case Study: Street Children in Tehran)

Introduction: Despite the consequences of social harms, however, these harms are usually considered as social issues, not legal-criminal ones, traditionally. The common perception of these harms has led to focus on the reason more than considering governor’s responsibility to create and maintain them. The phenomenon of street children as one of the most important social harms in Iranian society, although it has been considered in various aspects, taking into account the responsibility for the government, is ignored. In recent decades, and under the guise of a so-called Statecrime approach, Statesas criminals, have also been held criminally liable for these damages nowadays. Examining the causes of the creation and continuation of this phenomenon, along with examining the duties and responsibilities of different authorities and institutions in this regard, can be very effective in explaining this issue from the perspective of the State's criminal responsibility.
Method: According to the interviews with street children, the research method of this research is qualitative and its sampling has been done purposefully. Despite the fact that after interviewing 61 street children, saturation was achieved due to the similarity between their statements, however, in order to increase the accuracy of the research results, the interview was conducted with the entire research community (100 people).Giving the interviews, then they were analyzed using an open coding method and the results were presented under the etiology of street children.
Finding: The findings of the present study, which were obtained by examining the common theories of government crime and study of 100 street children in Tehran, show that poverty (in the concept of not meeting the basic needs of life), family problems (such as separation or Parental differences, physical or verbal violence at home, parental addiction or one of them and so on.), high living costs (especially in the metropolis of Tehran) and children's need for entertainment and freedom are the most important reasons for the street children phenomenon and its continuation. Although none of the interviewees mentioned in their answers the factors of working for other people and being exploited, however, economic exploitation of these children is an issue that can certainly be considered as a factor for the phenomenon of street children.
Results & Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that along with the existing reasons for creating the phenomenon of street children, neglect of various institutions and authorities at different levels of decision and implementation, is one of the most important reasons for the development of this phenomenon in Iranian society. Although Iran's penal code is mostly insufficient to respond to perpetrators of government crime, it is still possible to provide minimum responses to these individuals regarding their responsibility to street children.