Crime Prevention: The Need and Presence of "Evidence" within Security and Risk Management Practice(s)

Prevention of crime remains an implied and specified objective of security risk management.

That is, security should delay, prevent, stop or deter crime from happening and respond and capture those that do or when it occurs.

However, so much of 'security' is little more than habits, routine, norms and templated 'group-think' applied over and over, in the hope or chance of preventing all manner of crime.

In other words, poor security is just 'done', without consideration, analysis or context to the threat, vulnerability, exposure and foreseeable or plausible crime(s) that may/may not be perpetrated against individuals, organisations, governments or communities.

Conversely, good/better security and supporting risk management is measured, optimises resources, is structured, is systematic and evaluates pre & post safety, security, vulnerability and ultimate 'risk'. For this to occur, prior planning and preparation (PPPPPP) is required.

A symbiotic evaluation of security and crime prevention. Because they are distinct, complementary disciplines.

"..for the security profession to adopt a more systematic approach to evaluation to support the currently weak what works evidence base.??"

(Newton, 2022)

While there are a growing number of entry and advanced level approaches, there are long-standing models that can be applied to current, past and future security strategies, remediation and applied/academic contexts.

"CLAIMED, then, is a universal algorithm summarising the tasks preventive practitioners must do when mobilising people or organisations to undertake crime prevention action, or to desist from promoting crime. It’s equally a framework for systematically describing how it was done in practice, how it succeeded or what went wrong."

(Ekblom, 2010: 234)

Without evidence, efficacy, results and 'proof' can not be proven.

"...the ultimate proof of any claimed superiority of one framework over another is whether it can be made to work on the ground and be accepted by practitioners, whether that working is more intelligently done and – most importantly – whether that working delivers significantly improved performance as an outcome."

(Ekblom, 2010: 135)

Measurement, improvement and distinctions between insecure, unsecure and 'secure' are required. Remembering, these states are not mutually exclusive nor academic expressions to be asserted in the absence of evaluation and exposure to specific threats, capabilities in specific contexts, times and geographies.

"..security metrics are woefully lacking in our industry today, but are commonly used tools in other industries, including our cousins in the information technology security industry."

(Vellani, 2020)

In sum, crime prevention remains an evidence-based approach to specific criminological findings, phenomena and contexts.

Security management and risk mitigations are remediation measures to specific threats, including crime potential and occurrences, across all spectrums.

Both are dependent upon measurement, planning, evidence, risk-informed choices and trade-offs.

Numbers, data, scales, outcomes and 'status' are features (not mandatory obligations) throughout. Therefore, good, better and effective security risk management and crime prevention is discernible by structured, systematic, comparative and empirical (and scientific practices).

"Artisan" approaches and 'beliefs' lack these points and practices, and remain less reliable and valid as result. This applies to all facets of 'security', such as public, private, commercial and corporate.

In short, professionals are identifiable by professional practices and methods.

Security and risk management are no exclusion or exception. Crime prevention is but one means of evaluation and measurement.

Ridley Tony

Security, Risk, Safety, Resilience and Management Sciences

References:

*Ekblom, P. (2010). Crime prevention, security and community safety using the 5Is framework. Springer.p.235-236

^Newton, A. (2022). Realistic Evaluation and the 5Is: A systematic Approach for Evaluating Security Interventions, in Gill, M. (ed) The Handbook of Security, 3rd ed, Palgrave Macmillan, p.517-528

Vellani, K. (2020).?Strategic security management: a risk assessment guide for decision makers, 2nd ed, CRC Press.