Abstract
An Investigation of Factors Affecting the Frequency of Helping Beggars: The Case of Erzurum Province
Beggary has emerged with the history of humanity and has been influential in most
cultures. Beggary is a social problem that is ever-increasingly visible in Turkey. Beggars
who are frequently encountered in everyday life, especially in the main roads and streets
of cities, hospital and mosque entrances, transportation venues, underpasses and
overpasses, are becoming a problem that is nestling increasingly. In this scope, the aim
in this study was to investigate how frequently the people of Erzurum helped beggars by
addressing how they made sense of the concept of beggary, how they saw beggars and how
they perceived beggary. As of the time frame of the questionnaire used in the study, 4,6%
of people never helped beggars. Of the participants, 79,8% helped beggars occasionally,
and 15,6% helped beggars always. In this study, the frequency of helping beggars and
the factors affecting this frequency were investigated based on the opinions of the people
of Erzurum by using ordered logistic regression analysis. According to the results of the
predicted model, marital status, age, educational status and types of beggars were found
to be effective in the frequency of helping beggars. Furthermore, the following statements
about the perception of beggary were also found to be effective in the study: the reason for
begging was desperation, beggary was a crime, beggary was a social problem, everyone
who begged was really beggars, and I would not believe what beggars said when they
begged. Singles were less likely to always help beggars than married people. High school
graduates were found to be less likely to always help beggars than university graduates.
People aged 31–45 years and 46 years or older were more likely to help beggars at all
times than those aged 18–30 years.
Keywords
Beggary, Perception of Begging, Frequency of Help, Ordered Logistic Regression, Discrete Choice Mode
