Business Crime
Retail Crime: Prevention Through Crime Analysis
Crime Prevention Unit Paper No 11 (1988) sought to provide practical advice to assist those retailers who wish to apply crime analysis techniques to retail crime.
Few retailers doubt that crime is an expensive fact of life, and is a concern that has to be taken into account in all aspects of their operations. It is not only expensive but can be painful, for those in retailing are occasionally also subject to violence. Moreover retailers are increasingly aware that they are not only the victims of crime committed by ‘outsiders’ — such as customers or burglars — but by their own employees.
The report, published in 1988, drew on the experience of a large retailer — the Dixons Group – in tackling not only theft committed by customers at their stores, but a great many more of the crime problems familiar to other retail companies. It offers a convincing case for other retailers to apply the principles of ‘crime analysis’ to their problems, as well as practical — step by step — advice as to how they should do so. This report was illustrative of the progress being made in developing ways of analysing crime problems and of devising preventive measures. It also demonstrated the growing willingness to exchange ideas and information in an endeavour to control crime.
Crime analysis techniques have been strongly advocated as central to modern policing. They are a means of making the most efficient use of an expensive public resource and can prove to be an essential tool in targeting preventive action. The value of this approach has been demonstrated in a series of diverse situations, and the lessons apply equally well to retailers considering how to tackle their own crime problems.
This report provides practical advice to assist those retailers who wish to apply these techniques. By doing so retailers will be in a stronger position to identify the precise nature of their crime problems, to explore how these might be tackled, and to assess the effectiveness of remedial action they might adopt.
The message offered is that security considerations should be subject to the same standards of rigorous analysis as other aspects of retail management. The collection and analysis of reliable information on security issues is an important first step in this direction.
Getting a copy
Crime Prevention Unit: Paper 11 (PDF format) by John Burrows is available from http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs/fcpu11.pdf
Last update: 14 February 2005