Can Victimisation at Work Be Effectively Measured and Prevented - Coursework Example

Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Crime at Work vs. Types of Business Related Crimes ……………... 2 III. Crime Measurement and Prevention in Retail Stores vs. The Size of Businesses ……………...…………………………….…. 3 a. Retail / Wholesale Merchandising: Customer-related Theft in a Grocery/Convenience Store Setting ………..……….. 3 b. Retail / Wholesale Merchandising: Employee-related Theft in a Grocery/Convenience Store Setting ………………..... 6 c. Retail / Wholesale Merchandising: Customer Theft in other Specialized Retail Stores ……………………………... 7 IV. The Government Initiatives to Combat Business Crime …………….. 8 V. Problems and Solutions on Business Internal Data Gathering ……… 8 VI. Comparison between British Crime Survey and Commercial Victimisation Survey ………………………………………………… 9 a. The Relationship between BCS, CVS and Police Reports ……………………………………………….. 10 VII. Conclusion …………………………………………………………… 11 Annex I - Victimisation on Retail Premises (Yr. 2002)………….…………. 13 Annex II - Comparative Data Gathered by BSC and Police Records …….… 14 Annex III - Correlations between trends in recorded crimes ……………….. 15 References ………………………………………………………………….... 16 Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 1 - Introduction The success of our economy lies behind the successful performance of each manpower in a company. Any forms of business-related criminal acts could directly and indirectly affect the overall performance of each enterprise or a corporation within our country. The need of every employer and employee to feel secure from any forms of victimisation at work gave way for criminologists to recently extend their attention from monitoring and assisting the victims of household crimes towards the victims of employees at work. According to Gill, people at work should equally receive protection from any actual or potential harm. (Gill, 1994:1) Certain crimes exist more in a specific type of business community than the other. Theft related crimes happens more in retail businesses than in manufacturing companies because retail stores are open directly to customers. Considering that companies are legally and morally liable in looking after the employees’ safety and welfare, criminologists should work together with employers to ensure that each worker in the workplace is safe from any forms of physical or emotional harm. A good criminologist should consider a lot of factors prior to making any judgement or remarks when it comes to making a report. These are factors that may contribute to the possibility of crime within a working environment. Among the factors that we should look upon are the sizes, locations, types, business procedures of an enterprise or a company; and the types of crime and ways to define each offence. Today, businesses have become aware of the need to invest in some security strategies related to crime prevention. The investment in security strategies would minimize and control huge Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 2 - business opportunity loses that may have resulted from crimes such as robbery, thieves, vandalism, verbal abuse, burglary, criminal damages, threats, employee fraud, etc. In relation with the measuring of victimisation within a work place, a lot of methodologists are widely used by some private and government organizations. Over time, these methodologists are being modified into a more acceptable standard. Examples of security surveys that are currently operational are the British Crime Survey (Burrows and Speed, 1994; Brocks and Cross, 1996), Homes Office’s Commercial Victimisation Survey (Mirrless – Black and Ross, 1995 a, b, c), Survey Work that are being carried out by the Forum of Private Business in Association with the Scarman Centre (Gill, 1998 a), and the Small Business Crime Initiatives Survey of Business in Leicester (Wood et al., 1997). However, this paper aims to focus on Analyzing how BCS and Home Office’s CVS measures victimisation at work as well as highlighting some security strategies and preventive measures designed for retail / wholesale stores that criminologists could extend to each company. Crime at Work vs. Types of Business Related Crimes According to Wood, the common types of business-related crimes are burglary, attempt burglary, criminal damage, customer theft, staff theft, robbery, attempt robbery, fraud, transport loss, violence, and abuse. (Wood et al., 1997) The type of criminal offences depends greatly on the type of business. Retailers are highly susceptible to customer and employee theft than in manufacturing companies. Based on the data gathered by the British Crime Survey in 2002, victimisation of retailers and manufacturers specifically on customer-theft is 42% and 29% respectively. On the other hand, employee-related theft is 12% in retail stores Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 3 - and 7% in manufacturing companies. (British Crime Survey, 2002) Crime Measurement and Prevention in Retail Stores vs. the Size of Businesses Identifying the types of business-related crimes is essential in terms of formulating some ways on how to prevent victimisation at work. The information gathered on business-related threats is usually the basis used in coming up with an effective and good security. Reliable information should consist of the types of threat that may exist within a certain type of working environment. This should include the degree of threats that the business is facing. A good example is the case of retailers. A study has already proven that retailers experience a higher theft related crimes than the manufacturers. Therefore, the formulation of preventive measures for victimisation in a retail setting should focus on theft prevention. Also, different approaches may be applied in retail stores depending on the kind of goods sold, the rate of turn-over of the goods, and the size of the businesses. Preventive measures applied in a grocery or convenient stores is entirely a different approach when it comes to retail stores of clothing, books, CDs, etc. Also, investing on high cost technology would depend on the need and the ability of the entrepreneur to pay. Retail / Wholesale Merchandising: Customer-related Theft in a Grocery/Convenience Store Setting Retail and Wholesale merchandising commonly experience ‘shop theft.’ The size of retail and wholesale stores is one factor that directly affects the degree of monitoring and recording the incidence of shop thefts. As a common knowledge, there is a higher risk of victimisation in a bigger store than in a smaller one. Merchandisers usually keep track of ‘shop theft incidence’ based on tallying the inventory of goods vs. the total cash Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 4 - received. Inventory of goods is done at least once a month depending on the inventory schedule of retail and wholesale stores. The extent of victimisation of a retail and/or wholesale owner can be accounted based on the total monetary value of items that were lost or damaged. The measurement method of small retail stores normally depend on manual counting of goods in getting the store’s actual physical inventory. This method is considered as an ineffective way of measuring the amount or degree of victimisation at work because manual counting of goods usually takes days to finish. Before the business owner learns about the report on the incidence of shop theft, it is already too late for them to take strict security actions. Therefore, they usually end up accepting the threat as part of the business. There are some technological advances that are presently used in retail and wholesale stores to minimize and prevent customer thefts. These electronic gadgets were designed specifically for detecting retail crimes. Depending on the kind of goods sold in a retail or wholesale store, business owners or managers can choose between investing on Closed-circuit Television (CCTV), retail shop tagging systems and alarm systems or electronic article surveillance. (Beck and Willis, 1995) The most commonly used customer and employee theft prevention in grocery and convenience stores is the closed-circuit television (CCTV). This invention can be used in monitoring the entire vicinity of the store including the main entrance and glass windows which could be a possible point of entry. Other times CCTV and security lighting are used to protect the outside area of the building. This option replaces the need to put up observation mirrors around the store area Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 5 - or to hire security guards to constantly keep track of shop lifters. However, human intervention is still needed to locate and record possible business crimes. Since small businesses are unable to afford to hire security guards, they invest on CCTV instead. Customers’ knowledge that they are being watched by the surveillance cameras would minimize the events of shop lifting. At the end of the day, retailers could observe suspicious shoppers by reviewing the tapes on VCR. The downside of this kind of record and review system is that some shoplifters still get away from stealing. The good side about the use of CCTV is that the retailer could determine the customer theft patterns in order to recognize repeat offenders. Since there is a higher crime rate in larger retail stores, the store managers and/or owners of big retail outlets prefer to use a combination of these security techniques. (Beck and Willis, 1995) Note: See Annex I for reported crime rate based on the size of retail stores. p.12 Today, larger stores rely on less visible cameras. These cameras can be mounted in a smoke detector, sprinkler heads, thermostats or clocks. Sometimes they mount the cameras in ceiling tile domes. Others use a ‘pan/tilt/zoom’ camera capable of following someone around the store. CCTV systems are made in a way that retailers can monitor several store locations and distribution centres in his office. The user of the remote surveillance system can send to other store locations the evidence of shoplifters on a full-frame video image over a high-speed phone lines. According to a report on NIJ Journal, “the use of CCTV in Newham reduces crime by 35%; burglary declined by 72% even though the system was not originally intended to target those crimes.” (NIJ Journal) Installing a burglar alarm in retail stores are also a good way of crime preventions at night. Businesses are also encouraged to get an insurance coverage as part of the preventive measures. Crimes like burglary, robbery, theft and vandalism are Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 6 - usually covered by insurance policy. Crimes related to fraud and some electronic crimes are not covered in the policy. The use of fake money detector upon accepting cash payments from the customers can lessen the incidence of fraud. Retail / Wholesale Merchandising: Employee-related Theft in a Grocery/Convenience Store Setting Investigate on employees before hiring them is one way of determining the trustworthy and reliability of a prospective employee. There are many ways in which employees can steal from the company without having a bad record about it. A good example unrecorded employee-related thefts include sleeping and using the internet for personal purposes during office hours. Aside from the examples we have mentioned regarding the unrecorded employee-related thefts, there are thousands of similar cases that usually occur in the warehouse. This is the main reason why warehouse monitoring should be given the highest priority. Let us consider grocery stores as an example. Non-moving items stored in the warehouse is considered as opportunity lost due to the negligence of warehouse personnel and managers. Normally, goods that are stored in the warehouse should strictly follow a system called ‘First-in-first-out’ (FIFO). This system prevents canned items from being unsold prior to reaching the expiration date. It also prevents the damage on packaged items due to prolonged storage. Sometimes prolonged storage of goods would result inability to sell the items because of the product is already obsolete. Negligence on the part of warehouse personnel can be considered as a crime since unreliable warehousing could cost a lot on the part of the business owner. Opportunity lost related to warehousing can easily be minimized and prevented. Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 7 - Managers and/or the owners of large retail or wholesale store especially those with many distribution outlets should invest on data warehousing. Data warehousing enables the business owners to easily keep track on the stocks on hand, monitor non-moving items, checks on the actual quantity of stocks per items on a real-time basis, etc. This information can be used in calculating the number of missing items on a day-to-day basis. The real-time quantity report that will be reflected on data warehouse can be used to randomly check whether there are missing items in the warehouse from time to time. The differences between the real-time quantity being reflected on data warehouse and the actual quantity available in the warehouse can be converted into monetary value. This is one way in which data warehouse could make internal reporting on possible employee-theft easier. There is no need to go through tedious manual computation in determining the actual quantity and cost of lost and damage items each day. The only downside of this technology is the investment cost. A lot of small business retailers may not afford to invest on data warehousing. Retail / Wholesale Merchandising: Customer Theft in other Specialized Retail Stores Retail stores selling clothing, bookstores, CDs, etc. uses a different monitoring and theft prevention approach. This type of retail stores usually invest on retail shop tagging systems and electronic article surveillance systems. (Faham, 2007) Available shop tagging systems varies from security tags to security labels. Once a customer purchase an item, the sales lady would detached or deactivate the shop tags upon payment. Failure to detach the tag or deactivate the security labels from the purchased items would cause the metal detector located at the entrance/exit of the store to alarm. Security guard(s) would then inspect the customer(s) that are standing close to the metal detector at the time the Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 8 - alarm was up. Incidence of theft would then be recorded by the retail store personnel. The Government Initiatives to Combat Business Crime Home Office Minister is part of UK government assigned in handling the responsibility in reducing crimes all over the country. The high level of business related crimes made the HOM determined in establishing a prevention programme designed for business crime. This programme was implemented in August 2003 highlighting its two (2) main purposes: to combat crimes related to business and emphasizing the role of each business in reducing the incidence of crime. (Crime Reduction, 2005) Part of the strategy is to develop a Crime Reduction Advice and Support Services for Businesses whereby the HOM would appoint a network of Business Crime Reduction Advisers (BCRAs) in each of the 10 regional Government Offices – East Midlands, North West, Wales, East of England, West Midlands, Yorkshire & the Humber, South West, North East, South East, and London. BCRA was given the task of providing a support link between the businesses and the local Crime Reduction Agencies. BCRA’s main responsibility is to develop and implement a regional strategy in dealing with business crime issues. Problems and Solutions on Business Internal Data Gathering Problems related to data gathering are caused by unreported crimes. An employee stealing office-time from the company could be considered as a crime because the company is paying the salary of the unproductive employee. However, it is unusual that this kind of incident is to be reported as a crime. For instance, employee A was caught sleeping while employee B was caught using the internet for personal business during Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 9 - office hours. The management is unlikely to report such cases as a crime. To solve the problem, the management should do something about it internally such as report the case to the HR department so that strict actions can be taken. Perhaps the HR personnel could give the employee a warning on the first offence. Once an employee committed the same offence one after another, he/she can be terminated or fired by the company. Another problem related to data gathering is unreported crimes. Small- and Medium-scale businesses that were not able to invest in computerization could have a hard time tracking down missing items from the stocks on hand. Normally, reported crimes are only based from shoplifting that was caught on the act. To solve this kind of unreported case, the small- and medium-scale businesses should see the importance of investing in computerization and software programs which could make the inventory and tracking down of missing and damaged items a lot easier. Multiple recording or double recording can cause the result of measurements to be misleading. Proper recording of crimes should include the data and time the crime was made. The date and time of each crime recorded can be used as a marker for possible double entry of data. Comparison between British Crime Survey and Commercial Victimisation Survey The British Crime Survey (BCS) and Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) provides us information about crime related issues. Data gathered by both surveyors normally comes from telephone and postal mail interviews. BCS and CVS measures business-related crimes in England and Wales. BCS takes into consideration the people’s attitudes towards a specific crime in coming up with decision towards the Criminal Justice System, etc.; while CVS – the first national survey Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 10 - of crimes in small and medium-sized retail and manufacturing companies includes other business crimes like fraud and technology crimes against businesses. The method of measurement used by CVS was modified in 2002 from its original methodology in 1994. CVS measures the perception of crimes and anti-social behaviour and its effects on businesses. The Relationship between BCS, CVS and Police Reports BCS and CVS are able to gather a wider scope since they include crimes that are not reported to the police. BCS and CVS measures crime by tallying the data gathered thru the telephone and postal interviews. Police measures criminal acts based on direct complains that are reported by the victims. Since BCS, CVS and police departments gather information regarding the number of criminal incidence based on geographic locations each year, the figures coming from the three sources of data should give us a similar result when it comes to the trend of crimes. For instance, when BCS detects that robbery on retail store increase in a given year, the result of the police report should also show an increase in robbery within the same year. Let us compare the two (2) reports – the BCS and Police reports; British Crime Survey (BCS) is considered to be a more reliable measure when it comes to violent crime. This is mainly because of the changes that occurred in the recording process of police department when it comes to violent crimes. The introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard that was implemented in April 2002 resulted to inflation in the police records over the past few years. This made the figures coming from the police department a little distorted. Note: See Annex II for chart comparison between data gathered by BCS and Police Record. p.13 Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 11 - Combination of the result coming from BCS, CVS, and the Police Record would give us a better picture with regards to crime issues related to business. It is expected that the trend of a specific crime should be the same since these three surveyors gathers data from a similar geographic location and is looking for the same variables. However, the values or figures gathered by the three will never be the same because these surveyors derive their information using different set of samples. There will always be an exception to the rule when it comparing the result of measurements. In the case of the police report starting 2002 onwards, the figures started to inflate. Just the same, the trend coming from the police report would still be the same with the trend gathered by the other surveyors. Victimisation can be effectively measured. In fact, it is also possible to compute for the correlation between different types of crimes can also be computed using some mathematical formulas. Note: See Annex III for the Correlations between trends in recorded crimes. p.14 Conclusion It is possible to effectively measure and prevent victimisation at work. The UK government has implemented some security strategies and preventive measures which are important in cutting down the rate of criminal cases and victimisation related to work. Large businesses like wholesalers face a higher risk of encountering more business-related crimes than a smaller retailer. For this reason, wholesale businesses with a lot of retail outlets should invest more on newly innovated technologies which can be used in monitoring and preventing some possible business-related crime acts like customer- and employee-theft, etc. The use of security technology like burglar alarm, Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 12 - CCTV, data warehousing, tagging, alarm systems and security lighting, etc. will save the company a lot of money related to opportunity lost due to criminal acts. It will also enable the company to have a real-time report at the end of each day. This report will give the company the benefit of imposing immediate security actions in response to the damages that arises due to business-related crimes. Specifically data warehouse can be used in measuring the degree of internal damages caused by employee-theft. Data warehouse system gives a real-time quantity stocks on hand which can be used by randomly comparing these quantity with the actual stocks on hand. Difference in the quantity can easily be converted into monetary value as part of the internal theft-related or employee negligence report. Business Internal Reports will be used as a guideline for managers and owners in coming up with preventive measures and firm action regarding this kind of business problems. Intervention coming from the government, criminologists, and other related agencies together with the participation of businesses increases the security level in a working environment by cutting down the number of attacks in businesses. Business-related crimes are measured based on geographic area and type of business. There are several survey groups that specialises in measuring victimisation at work. Among these special groups are the British Crime Survey, Home Office’s Commercial Victimisation Survey, etc. The value or figures coming from these surveyors varies because each group uses different set of samples. However, the trend that comes from the report of these surveyors is very much similar. Even the correlation between different types of business crimes can be computed. *** End *** Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 13 - Annex I - Victimisation on Retail Premises (Yr. 2002) Number of Employees at Establishment All 1 - 9 10 - 49 50 - 250 Unweighted base 3,955 2,736 1,052 165 Any Crime 74 68 86 92 Any Property Crime incl. burglary 70 63 84 91   Theft by customers 43 36 56 58 Vandalism 23 18 31 39 Theft by persons unknown 20 15 29 43 Fraud by outsiders 18 13 26 37 Theft by employees 10 4 18 44 Theft by outsiders 9 7 12 16 Theft from vehicles 8 5 13 18 Fraud by employees 4 2 7 12   Theft of vehicles 3 2 4 11 Any Burglary 25 21 34 42 Attempted burglary 17 13 24 32 Burglary 16 13 23 28 Any Violent Crime 23 16 36 44 Threat, assaults, intimidation 20 14 32 41   Robbery or attempted robbery 6 4 7 11 Source: Home Office - Research, Development and Statistics Department; Commercial Victimisation Survey Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 14 - Annex II – Comparative Data Gathered by BSC and Police Records Note: Prior to the Implementation of the National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS) in 2002, the trend gathered between BCS and Police Records are the same. After the Implementation of NCRS in 2002, the data became distorted. Source: Home Office Survey – www.homeoffice.gov.uk Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 15 - Annex III - Correlations between trends in recorded crimes Source: Home Office - Research, Development and Statistics Department; Commercial Victimisation Survey Can Victimisation at Work be Effectively Measured and Prevented - 16 - References: 1 Beck and Willis (1995) ‘Crime and Security: Managing the Risk to Safe Shopping’ Perpetuity Press Ltd. Jan. 1995. 2 British Crime Survey (2002) ‘Crime against Retail and Manufacturing Premises: findings from the 2002 Commercial Victimisation Survey’ Retrieved: February 13, 2007 < www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ > 3 Brocks, C. and Cross, C. (1996) ‘Retail Crime Costs: 1994/5 Survey’ London: British Retail Consortium 4 Burrows, J. and Speed, M. (1994) ‘Retail Crime Costs 1992/3 Survey’ London: British Retail Consortium. 5 Crime Reduction (2005) ‘Crime Reduction Advisers’ Retrieved: February 12, 2007 < http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/ > 6 Faham, F. (2007) ‘Electronics in Action: EAS Systems’ Retrieved: February 10, 2007 < http://www.geocities.com/ > path: fifaham 7 Gill, K.M., Woolley, A. and Gill. M. (1994) ‘Insurance Fraud: The Business as a Victim’ in Gill, M. (ed.) Crime at Work: Studies in Security and Crime Prevention, Leicester: Perpetuity Press: 73 – 82. 8 Gill, M. (1998a) ‘The Victimisation of Business: Crimes which Repeat and the Indicators of Risk’, International Review of Victimology 9 Mirrlees – Black, C. and Ross, A. (1995a) ‘Crime against Retail Premises in 1993, Home Office Research Findings’ No. 26, London: HMSO. 10 NIJ Journal ‘CCTV’ Issue No. 249 Retrieved: February 10, 2007 < http://www.ncjrs.gov/ > 11 Wood et al., (1997) ‘Crime against Small Business: Facing the Challenge’ Swindon: Crime Concern/SBCI. 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