Criminal Justice, Issues within Security Management Practice and Personal Security - Coursework Example

 Criminal Justice and Issues within Security Management Practice Risk Assessment to Analyse Security Needs Risk assessment process is a fundamental and significant way of analyzing the security needs of a business. It allows conducting methodological and deliberate analysis of needs and enables developing foolproof security plan to assure the protection of personal or organizations’ assets. Risk assessment, also called security risk analysis is the process through which the possible threats and risks exposed to a business are identified and short listed according to their probability. Risk assessment is the process that assists the business in identifying the security risks and their magnitude as well as the organization’s information resources and their vulnerabilities in meeting the security needs (Ortmeier, 2005). Risk assessment of security needs is a qualitative analysis and its first and major step requires attaining detailed and credible information and analysis of security needs (Ortmeier, 2005). The first stage of the risk assessment process requires the management to list out broad range of anticipated threats that can pose some level of risks to the business. It is imperative to conduct detailed research work to have complete awareness of the issues associated with the security scenario of the organization and its operating environment. The data and information regarding the past security incidents are collected through different relevant resources. The security related incidents occurred at the site, within the business or within the same industry are considered and reviewed to determine the patterns and nature of criminal behaviour (Peltier, 2002). The loss occurred to the company and others affecting from the incidents is also calculated and reviewed. It is also essential that interviews should be conducted with the company management, insurance agency personnel, and local emergency administration to identify the applicable risks. Furthermore, the safety records and legal judgments involving the organization are scrutinized to understand the organization’s legal position in case of exposure with any security issue. The criminal data and rate of crimes took place within the industry are also studied. Along with the examination of the security incidents already happened to the organization or industry, it is also important to consider the threats that have not occurred yet but still pose challenge to the business due to their applicability on the basis of nature of the business or due to some social or political issue (Peltier, 2002). In the next step, the management is supposed to narrow down the list giving importance to most applicable threats. The security risks or threats identified in the first step are classified in different categories including probable, possible and unlikely. The incidents that are expected to occur are kept in the category of probable risks, the incidents for which there exist favourable circumstances are kept within the category of possible risks whereas the incidents not expected to occur are placed in the category of unlikely risks. Based on this classification, the security needs of a business are identified and short listed according to their implications to the security plan. It is very important to continuously update the risk assessment process in order to keep the security plan aligned and consistent with the changing circumstances and their requirements (Peltier, 2002). Types of Business Crimes Business crimes include all the disorders and offences that are committed by or against any business entity. The business crimes are often different from traditional crimes. These crimes are also called as white colour and corporate crime and in most of the cases these crimes result in economic loss to the company (Ortmeier, 2005). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) classifies the business crimes in three categories including fraud, counterfeiting and forgery and embezzlement. Fraud is the deliberate action taken by a company or individual that intends to damage or cheat others. Counterfeiting is the unauthorized and unpermitted copying of any item like money, clothing styles, watches and handbag designs etc whereas, Embezzlement is the use of entrusted money or property for personal benefit. All of the other crimes are placed under the “other” category and FBI does not regard the business crimes as serious threats to the business sector (Shapiro, 1995). Business crime is broad term that includes several types of non-traditional as well as nonviolent crimes including fraud, illegal transactions, black mailing, telemarketing fraud, and welfare fraud; identify theft, commercial robbery like theft of intellectual property, damage to physical assets, theft of vehicles or plants, counterfeiting, forgery, tax invasion and bribery etc. The business crimes are supposed to be nonviolent, but in some cases, the offenders might be violent in their acts and get involved in activities like harassment, assault, violence against workers or protesters (Shapiro, 1995). The businesses face challenge in form of certain anti-social behaviours also that pose high level of threats to the businesses. For instance, the people protesting for any other social or political cause might damage the assets of the business when they pass through the site. Furthermore, the behaviours of some employees or high level official could also be deemed as crime when they cause verbal abuse, harassment, distress and discomfort to the employees to the customers (Ortmeier, 2005).. There are different methods that have been adopted by the offenders to commit these business crimes. For instance, advanced fee schemes are launched to grab money from people in return for some future benefits that are actually never given to them and the advance fee is also not refunded. Similarly, some investment schemes are introduced and people are encouraged to invest their money in return for high rates of interest. After collecting handsome amount of money from people, these companies disappear and the investors have to face the loss of their money (Shapiro, 1995). As the time passes, there are certain new crimes that the businesses of today are likely to encounter like credit card fraud, cellular phone fraud, website hacking and loss of company’s digital data etc. Hacking results in the unsafe disclosure of company secret information like financial data, credit card numbers, proprietary information and personal contact information of employees and officials. The offenders are also making use of latest technologies to commit such crimes and at present, hacking and loss of digital data appears to be great threat to the business organizations. Due to this reason, there is great emphasize upon the security of digital data and companies have been formulating and implementing IT security plans to protect their assets from these rapidly evolving business crimes. Loss Prevention in Retail Businesses Loss occurs to almost each type of business however, the retail sector appears to be more vulnerable to theft and loss resulting from external and internally motivated crimes. The security plans of the retail businesses either used to focus upon the theft prevention from internal sources or loss caused by the external factors and there are different protection resources also allocated to minimize the likelihood of occurrence of loss to the business. It is found that the retail business face the threat of loss from both the external and internal resources. The external resources harm the retail businesses in form of shoplifting whereas the internal loss is caused by the employees’ theft or fraud (Davidson and Alice, 2003). There is equal importance of focusing upon loss prevention from internal and external sources because both of these are found to be great threat to the businesses. However, research studies have shown that external theft i.e. shoplifting appears to be more serious threat to the retailers and the security plans must be emphasized more towards the loss prevention from the external sources. Shoplifting contributes a major share in Retail Company’s total loss and requires concentrated attention and focus of security management towards the prevention of shoppers’ theft. In this regard, the staffs of the retail stores are being provided with training to prevent theft and deal with the shoplifters. The training of staff has been regarded as low cost but highly effective method of loss prevention from external source (Davidson and Alice, 2003). The security plans give more importance to the prevention and safety of the products rather detecting theft and dealing with people because theft prevention is low cost method that also saves time and reputation of the business. The security plans generally address the issues of shoplifting and employees’ theft etc in order to prevent loss to the business through internal and external resources. There are certain protection resources also allocated to safeguard the company’s assets. For instance, anti-theft devices are commonly used in the retail stores that immediately indicate the theft of any item. The sophisticated anti-theft devices however, sometimes fail to indicate the theft of the items and the experts suggest the more effective manner to deal with the shoplifters in to adopt an appropriate retail store lat out that monitors the shoppers at every step and prevents theft. The trained staffs thus appears to be most important loss prevention resource that must be allocated at appropriate positions with adequate training to prevent shoplifting. The loss to the retailer company from the internal sources could also be controlled through different measures. The employees could be motivated and trained to perform their duties in better ways in return for better incentives and wages. There should be complete scrutiny and investigation of the personal and professional information of the candidates before appointing them at the retail stores in order to assure the inclusion of competent employees in the staff. The inventory system should also be reviewed and audit on continual basis to avoid the probabilities of fraud. There are certain software also introduced that allow the management to prevent the theft or fraud by the employees. It implies that the security companies have to focus towards both the internal and external resources that could cause loss to the retail companies however, the external source shoplifters generally cause more loss to the retailers due to which the security plans need to be more focused towards the loss prevention measures from external sources (Davidson and Alice, 2003). Impacts of Centralization of United States Intelligence The United States Intelligence consists of sixteen separate intelligence agencies managed by the government that worked separately as well as together for conducting several intelligence activities. The director of National Intelligence (DNI) leads the US intelligence and reports to the U.S. President. The present structure of US intelligence system is working satisfactorily however; there are some thoughts about major reforms in the US intelligence system (Posner, 2006). Some experts observe that US intelligence could work more effectively and efficiently if its functions would be centralized. This school of thought also uses to put forward certain arguments to support their suggestion. It is expected that the centralization of US intelligence functions will have positive impact upon the civil liberties and individual rights because the present system is often criticized on the grounds of being unjustified with the individual and civilian rights. The need for the reorganization US intelligence for centralization of its functions was first observed when the incident of 9/11 took place. The flaws within the US intelligence system were identified at that time and it was found that the US intelligence is unable to work effectively because the director of the central intelligence (DCI) has been allotted many responsibilities but DCI do not have sufficient statutory powers. There are some agencies within the US intelligence that are owned by the defence department whereas some of the agencies are under the control of FBI. Due to this reason also, the functions of US intelligence are not properly managed centrally and lose their effectiveness. The centralization of US intelligence functions is expected to draw significant impacts upon the civil liberties and individual rights because the intelligence agencies currently working separately will be directed to follow set of instructions released from a single authority and they will be supposed to follow single vision and direction. The civil liberties protection office is being managed by the DNI that formulates and implement different plans and policies to assure the protection of civil liberties. The centralization of US intelligence functions will help in the proliferation of the ideas and vision of this department and all the related agencies will be then expected to follow the plans and policies of civil liberties protection office that are currently managed by the DNI staff only. (Posner, 2006) There is also need to safeguard the individual rights by the US intelligence system and this could also be achieved through the centralization of US army because the restricting of its functions and concentration towards the central point will allow better management. Thus, it is found that the centralisation of the functions of US intelligence is expected to bring some positive impacts upon the individual rights and civil liberties because these functions could be better managed through a central system having more power and authorities. References Davidson, Alice, M. “It Is What You Know,” Security Management, 47 (June 2003): 69-70 Ortmeier, P.J. (2005), Security Management: An Introduction, 2/E, Prentice Hall, 2005 Peltier, T.R. (2002), Information security policies, procedures, and standards: guidelines for effective information security management, NY: CRC Press Posner, R.A (2006), Uncertain Shield: The U.S. Intelligence System in the Throes of Reform, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2006 Shapiro, B. (1995). "Collaring the Crime, not the Criminal: Reconsidering the Concept of White-collar Crime", American Sociological Review 55 (2): 346-65 Read More