Predicting and Preventing The Theft Of Electronic Products

The research presented within this paper was conducted as part of a two-year project (Project MARC) to develop and render operational a mechanism to assess the risk of theft of electronic products. Clarke and Newman (2002) proposed the use of two checklists – one to measure vulnerability the other to measure security, as a means of categorising products according to their vulnerability to theft. Consultation with key stakeholders yielded the common view that such a mechanism was worth pursuing, but that it must reflect the language of those who would use it. An extensive consultation with stakeholders from ten European member states ensued. Participants were asked to rate a range of electronic products in terms of vulnerability and security and to explain their ratings. Their responses were used to develop two checklists which incorporate a variety of factors, weighted according to the frequency with which they were expressed. The crime vulnerability checklist developed within this paper is judged fit for purpose as a provisional measurement but urge caution in relation to the security checklist

Sustaining the crime reduction impact of designing out crime: Re-evaluating the Secured by Design scheme 10 years on

Secured by Design (SBD) is an award scheme that aims to encourage housing developers to design out crime at the planning or concept stage. The scheme is managed by the Association of Chief Police Officers Crime Reduction Initiatives (ACPO CPI) while the day-to-day delivery of the scheme is conducted by Architectural Liaison Officers (ALOs) or Crime Prevention Design Advisors (CPDAs) working for individual police forces throughout the United Kingdom. The scheme sets standards for compliance that developments must meet to be awarded SBD status. This article presents the findings of research conducted over a 10-year period (1999–2009) into the effectiveness of the SBD scheme as a crime reduction measure. Utilising a variety of methods, the research aims to establish whether residents living within SBD developments experience less crime and fear of crime than their non-SBD counterparts; whether SBD developments show less visual signs of crime and disorder than their non-SBD counterparts; and finally, whether properties built to the SBD standard are able to sustain any crime reduction benefits over a 10-year period

How do offenders choose where to offend? Perspectives from animal foraging

Purpose Research suggests that offender spatial decision-making is not random. However, little is known about if or how offences in a series influence where an offender will target next. Drawing on concepts and empirical findings from environmental criminology and the ecology literature, in this article I consider what spatial patterns might be expected in the sequential crimes committed by serial offenders and provide an empirical example. Methods Data for detected burglars are analysed and patterns in the inter-event distances for sequential offences compared with those signatures typically associated with three types of foraging behaviour – central place foraging, Brownian walks and Lévy walks. Analyses involve the use of a Monte Carlo simulation to derive an expected distribution for central place foraging, while the observed probability density function of sequential inter-event distances is compared to exponential and power law distributions to test for evidence of Brownian and Lévy walks, respectively. Results Analyses suggest that patterns in burglar sequential inter-event distances cannot be explained by a simple central place foraging strategy. The distribution of sequential inter-event distances is found to be consistent with both Brownian and Lévy walks. Conclusions The findings suggest that there are regularities in the sequential spatial choices made by offenders, and that these are similar to those observed across species. Reasons for why there is evidence of both Brownian and Lévy walks are discussed. The implications of the findings for forensic techniques such as crime linkage analysis, geographic offender profiling and crime forecasting are discussed