NCJ Number
177082
Editor(s)
Martin Gill
Date Published
1998
Length
235 pages
Annotation
Incorporating the views of offenders, victims, customers, and business staff, this book presents papers on the causes and dynamics of various crimes in the workplace, as well as the effectiveness of various security measures intended to counter such crimes.
Abstract
Based on interviews with 341 convicted robbers, the first paper examines why and how they committed commercial robbery, with attention to how they selected their target. The second and third papers focus on commercial burglary and "ram raiding" (using a car as a ram to break open the windows or doors of a commercial establishment after hours). The fourth paper discusses shoplifters' perspectives on their crime, followed by three papers that address various types of crimes in different work settings (violence against staff in a national clothes retailing chain, crime and the police response on industrial estates, and employee theft in hotel bars). The ninth paper examines the growing trend for terrorists to focus on economic and business targets and suggests prevention measures that customers will accept. The next two papers address the effectiveness of electrical article surveillance, commonly referred to as tagging. One paper warns that the success of this technology depends in part on its effective integration into management systems. The theme of evaluating technology continues in the 12th paper, in which the authors assess customer and staff perceptions of closed circuit television both before and after its installation. The 13th paper assesses security procedures, with attention to how a scholarly security manual designed for an information technology business proved impractical for the business. The final paper discusses why some organizations prefer in-house to contract security staff. Chapter tables and bibliographies and a subject index