do spatial spillover effects of crime matter in urbanization and crime nexus? (case study: iranian provinces)

However, urbanization can have positive effects on the labor forceand economic growth in urban areas the unplanned and rapid paceof urbanization process can ultimately lead to unpleasantconsequences including marginalization, unemployment, poverty,the emergence of slums and shanty towns and the prevalence ofcrime in urban areas. therefore, the objective of this study was toinvestigate the spatial spillover effects of urbanization on crime in30 iranian provinces during the period from 2006 to 2015 usingdynamic spatial panel data models. the results of the studyrevealed that urbanization had a positive and statistically significantimpacts on crime per capita in iranian provinces indicating anincrease in urbanization enhances the crime level. in addition,unemployment rate, and human capital had significant and negativeeffects on crime in iranian provinces, respectively. finally, thecrime per capita in a previous period exerted a significant positiveeffect on the current crime which stablished the dynamic nature ofthis phenomenon. moreover, the results of the study demonstratedthat increasing crime per capita in neighboring provinces couldelevate the crime in a given province.