Showing papers in "Security Journal in 2009"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between victimization and fear of crime in a sample of college students, filling gaps in the literature by addressing key issues related to gender differences in fear.
Abstract: Crime and security on college campuses have received increasingly widespread attention in light of several recent, high-profile events. This study examines the relationship between victimization and fear of crime in a sample of college students, filling gaps in the literature by addressing key issues related to gender differences in fear. A sample of young adults was asked about prior victimization and fear of crime. Gender differences between men and women are examined in terms of relationships among four main types of personal victimization: stalking, sexual assault, family violence and intimate partner violence (IPV). Findings indicate that females are victimized more and are more fearful of crime than males. Race is also associated with fear in this sample. Furthermore, some types of crime victimization are significantly associated with fear of crime, although these associations differ from daytime to night. Implications are discussed in terms of gender, fear and crime victimization on campus.
175 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that women engage in self-protective behaviours more than men, and do so based upon their fear of crime and perceived likelihood of victimization; in addition, women are more likely to engage in Self-Protective behaviours than men even after fear and perceived risk are held constant.
Abstract: Research establishes that female college students are more fearful of crime on campus and are more likely to believe they will be victimized than male students. However, little is known about how students’ fear of crime and their perceptions of risk influence their use of self-protective behaviours. Undergraduates at an urban university were surveyed about fear and perceived likelihood of being the victim of various crimes and their use of self-protective behaviours. This study examines students’ use of self-protective behaviours and compares sex differences in fear, perceived likelihood of different types of crime and score on a self-protective behaviours index. Results suggest that women engage in self-protective behaviours more than men, and do so based upon their fear of crime and perceived likelihood of victimization; in addition, women are more likely to engage in self-protective behaviours than men even after fear and perceived risk are held constant.
61 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine differences and similarities between college and university campuses and military service academies on several sexual assault issues, and provide a comparison of rates of sexual assault, reporting rates and barriers, and policy efforts in each setting.
Abstract: This article examines differences and similarities between college and university campuses and military service academies on several sexual assault issues. Based on meta-analyses of federal reports, the article provides a comparison of rates of sexual assault, reporting rates and barriers, and policy efforts in each setting. Specific influences on sexual assault incidents and reporting are identified in both settings, including male-dominated cultures as well as specific policies and practices around sexual assault prevention and response. The article concludes with a discussion of the overall implications for women's security on college campuses and at military service academies and recommendations for future research and policy.
37 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the influence of student awareness of institutional security and crime prevention efforts on levels of student fear of burglary in university-owned or -operated accommodation using self-report data from this study.
Abstract: Contrary to the heightened awareness surrounding university student safety and security in the United States, it is only recently that attention has been given to these issues in England. In 2002, the Home Office of England and Wales commissioned a study of student victimisation and fear of crime at nine universities in the East Midlands region. Using self-report data from this study, the present study examined the influence of student awareness of institutional security and crime prevention efforts on levels of student fear of burglary in university-owned or -operated accommodation. Awareness of some types of security features and crime prevention efforts was related to students being less fearful, whereas for others, students were more fearful of burglary. Awareness of measures designed to increase the efforts of would-be offenders generated mixed fear results, whereas measures to increase their risks were associated with less fear among those students who were aware of them. The awareness–fear of burglary relationship was particularly pronounced for women students. The implications for university security and crime prevention are discussed.
32 citations
TL;DR: The women's safety audit as discussed by the authors allows participants to identify safe and unsafe spaces and recommend how the unsafe spaces can be improved, and privileges the experience of women living in a neighbourhood as experts in their own field.
Abstract: This paper discusses a methodological tool – the women's safety audit – initially developed in Canada, but which has been adapted and used in many regions of the world. The women's safety audit allows participants to identify safe and unsafe spaces and recommend how the unsafe spaces can be improved. In doing so, the women's safety audit privileges the experience of women living in a neighbourhood as ‘experts’ in their own field. Based on interviews with six organizations in Europe, Africa and Asia and on an analysis of written sources, the paper examines some of the applications, outcomes and challenges of this methodology. The findings suggest that the audit is adaptable to local contexts, can be effective for bringing about environment changes, empowering women and alerting the public and authorities to the shared responsibility for ensuring the safety of women.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how techniques of neutralization are used by white-collar offenders to justify their behavior and minimize the guilt associated with engaging in illegal activity, which can be used by businesses and other organizations to effectively design employee ethics programs geared toward helping prevent illegal activity before it occurs.
Abstract: To better detect and prevent white-collar crime, it is important for investigators, security specialists, business managers, and other professionals to understand motivations behind how and why individuals participate in such behavior. This paper examines how techniques of neutralization are used by white-collar offenders to justify their behavior and minimize the guilt associated with engaging in illegal activity. Investigator recognition of common neutralizations used by white-collar offenders can help them during the interrogations of suspected offenders. Additionally, a proper understanding of neutralizations available to white-collar offenders can be used by businesses and other organizations to effectively design comprehensive employee ethics programs geared toward helping prevent illegal activity before it occurs.
25 citations
25 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the results of a systematic review of evaluations of neighbourhood watch, which was conducted as part of the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group research on the effectiveness of criminal justice interventions.
Abstract: The current paper presents the results of a systematic review of evaluations of neighbourhood watch. The review was conducted as part of the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group research on the effectiveness of criminal justice interventions. The main finding of the review was that about half of the schemes evaluated showed that neighbourhood watch was effective in reducing crime. However, just under half showed no evidence of success. An analysis of variations in outcome by features of the study, methods used and type of scheme showed some correlations with outcome. The paper concludes that future evaluation reports of neighbourhood watch should present more information on the features of the schemes and the method of analysis used to determine the source of variations in outcome, and to enable systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
25 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a case study of serial sex attacks in Western Australia examined a specific criminal problem in a defined area of a university campus and examined the university's security framework before, during and after the attacks and how responses may have been enhanced to reduce fear and enhance feelings of safety.
Abstract: A case study of serial sex attacks in Western Australia examined a specific criminal problem in a defined area of a university campus. Coinciding with these attacks, media attention was focused on a high-profile Western Australian serial killer investigation. This study assessed the impact of continued sexual offences in the same location on a group of women's fear of crime, reinforced by the media reporting of other, similar localized crimes. It broadly examined the university's security framework before, during and after the attacks and how responses may have been enhanced to reduce fear and enhance feelings of safety. The case study involved speaking to female campus users to gather data on what crimes women fear most and how serial sex attacks have impacted on their perceptions of safety while on campus grounds. The study involved interviews with key stakeholders and examined the functions that security must have in order to make women feel safer when in open public space on a university campus.
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a Second Generation Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) framework is proposed to improve the security of women living in rural places from abuse by spouses and partners in both ongoing and terminated relationships.
Abstract: Informed by several studies of woman abuse in rural settings, the main objective of this paper is to discuss how key principles of Second Generation Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) can be applied to help design appropriate community-based prevention strategies for improving the security of women living in rural places from abuse by spouses and partners in both ongoing and terminated relationships. The gender-sensitive version of CPTED recognizes that communities are contested places where differing strands of values, norms, beliefs and tolerance for crime influence the security of rural women. Hence, some forms of social organization or collective efficacy (not social disorganization) may promote and condone rural woman abuse, and other forms serve to prevent and deter it. We propose a Second Generation CPTED framework that considers the utilization of four main strategies, each tailored to directly address feminist concerns and enhance a locality's collective efficacy to increase women's security: community culture; connectivity and pro-feminist masculinity; community threshold and social cohesion.
21 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, four models of citizen involvement in local security networks are distinguished: providing information, advising or participating in decision-making, promoting collective efficacy and informal social control, and more autonomous and exclusionary activities.
Abstract: This paper deals with the involvement of citizens (and local businesspersons) in the prevention and control of crime and disorder. Four models of citizen involvement in local security networks are distinguished. In each of these models the role of citizens concentrates on different functions: (1) providing information, (2) advising or participating in decision-making, (3) promoting collective efficacy and informal social control, and (4) more autonomous and exclusionary activities. Tensions in the participation of citizens in local security networks may result from contradictions between the underlying models. The meaning of non-participation by citizens and the relations between the police and citizens differ for each of the models of citizen involvement.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the perceptions of safety and risk among female and male victims of domestic abuse (including heterosexual and gay victims), and compared the prevalence of various risk factors across the different groups of victims.
Abstract: Several models of risk assessment for victims of domestic abuse have emerged in England, Wales, Scotland, Australia and the United States. In the United Kingdom, risk assessment and multi-agency approaches for very high-risk victims are a central part of the government's strategy to reduce domestic violence; therefore, risk assessment and management practices are proliferating rapidly. However, the feasibility and complexity of applying risk assessment to these areas is only just a beginning to be understood, particularly as risk assessment emerged from work with female victims and reflects knowledge of power and control differentials within heterosexual relationships. Using data from several empirical research projects, this paper compares the perceptions of safety and risk among female and male victims of domestic abuse (including heterosexual and gay victims). Differences in the prevalence of various risk factors are analysed across the different groups of victims. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on a qualitative study conducted by the European Union (EU) and intended to help to improve strategic, pan-European security dialogue and partnership between the private and public sectors.
Abstract: This paper reports on a qualitative study commissioned by the European Union (EU) and intended to help to improve strategic, pan-European security dialogue and partnership between the private and public sectors. The study draws on interviews with security managers at European level and on a reading of relevant EU policy documents. Most consultees argued for a “trusted forum”, in which security professionals would trade their knowledge and expertise, rather than “representing” specific private firms or state agencies. As the study was being conducted, there was a political tilt in “ownership” within the European Commission, the public–private security dossier being relinquished by its Directorate General for Justice Freedom and Security (Third Pillar) and being gained by DG Enterprise and Industry (First Pillar). Scanning the policy context, the paper suggests that security cooperation, hitherto conceptualised as public–private (public sector lead), should be understood as private–public, as security serves economic concerns.
TL;DR: The Making Safer Places (SSP) project as mentioned in this paper has worked to empower women to identify and articulate issues around safety in everyday urban settings, focusing on the human dimension to security and wellbeing.
Abstract: The revitalisation of British cities has been a concern of the current Government since the late 1990s. However, while much physical regeneration of the public realm has been undertaken, attention to the social dimensions of the city remains limited. This is despite the legacy of scholarship initiated by Jane Jacobs and Oscar Newman, which highlighted the human dimension to security and wellbeing. Moreover, a clear gender dimension is emerging within the literature. This paper reflects on these issues within the context of urban life in the United Kingdom drawing on empirical research conducted under the Women's Design Service (WDS) ‘Making Safer Places’ umbrella in London, Manchester, Bristol and Wolverhampton. The project has worked to empower women to identify and articulate issues around safety in everyday urban settings.
TL;DR: In this article, the ease of locating campus safety webpages on private and public institutions of higher education websites was evaluated and a content analysis was conducted to determine what type of Clery Act information mandated by the U.S. Department of Education was found.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the ease of locating campus safety webpages on private and public institutions of higher education websites. Second, a content analysis was conducted, if such a website existed, to determine what type of Clery Act information mandated by the U.S. Department of Education was found. With a sampling frame of 2,003 institutions obtained from the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE), 323 schools were sampled; of those, 234 had campus safety websites and 131 referenced the Clery Act. It took an average of two “clicks” to navigate from a university homepage to a campus safety website. The results suggest many campus safety websites post information related to crime statistics and emergency contacts, but are less likely to contain information about crime alerts and emergency plans/procedures. Campus safety and university administrators and webpage designers should consider making this information more easily retrievable on a homepage.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a review of current research regarding fear of crime on universities campuses, with a specific focus on fear of crimes among female campus constituents, and argue that university campuses must consider using practices aligned with community-oriented policing, rather than reactive policing, if they wish to understand campus constituents' perceptions of safety and provide effective and appropriate responses.
Abstract: This paper reviews current research regarding fear of crime on universities campuses, with a specific focus on fear of crime among female campus constituents. Day's (1994) suggestion that many traditional campus safety initiatives aimed at reducing women's victimization and emotional fear thereof actually serve to further control and constrain university women's behaviour highlights a necessity for improved and innovative recommendations for addressing the issue of fear of crime on universities campuses, especially among women. This paper argues that university campuses must consider using practices aligned with community-oriented policing, rather than reactive policing, if they wish to understand campus constituents’ perceptions of safety and provide effective and appropriate responses.
TL;DR: This work presents a meta-modelling system that automates the very labor-intensive and therefore time-heavy and expensive and therefore expensive and expensive process of manually cataloging and cataloging data for this type of research.
Abstract: Full text is not available in SOAR due to copyright restrictions. WSU Libraries provides access to electronic copy of this article via commercial databases and library online catalog: A link to Security Journal online: http://libcat.wichita.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1375845
TL;DR: In this paper, a model of how concern about personal security (a shorthand term designed to include assessments of both fear of crime and perception of risk) influences potential victims' decisions to change location is presented.
Abstract: This paper presents a model of how concern about personal security (a shorthand term designed to include assessments of both fear of crime and perception of risk) influences potential victims' decisions to change location. The model examines the decision-making process from the perspective of the potential victim and provides a framework for understanding how the large amount of research on fear of crime and related topics fits together. Movement decisions are particularly appropriate given the opportunities for crime provided by the presence of possible victims in locations in which potential offenders are present. The model is designed to be used by policy makers – particularly problem-solvers, planners and security professionals who may be approaching issues related to fear of crime for the first time. Researchers may also be interested in the model's focus on looking at the situational cues of locations and the responses that potential victims may use.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report the results of a survey of large retail malls to prevent and respond to terrorist attack in the United States after 9/11, finding that half of security directors believe their respective mall is unprepared for terrorist attack and fewer than a third have rehearsed for terrorist incidents with public agencies such as police, ambulance, and fire services.
Abstract: In the last four decades, modernity has increasingly become equated with a globalized “world risk society.” In the same period, the private security sector has grown significantly in size and prominence for the maintenance of public safety. This article reports the results of a survey of large retail malls to prevent and respond to terrorist attack in the United States after 9/11. A national survey of security directors (n=120) of large shopping malls over 250,000 square feet (n=1,372) was conducted in two phases beginning in the Summer of 2004. Few concrete changes to security expenditures and measures have resulted since 9/11. Half of security directors believe their respective mall is unprepared for terrorist attack and fewer than a third have rehearsed for terrorist incidents with public agencies such as police, ambulance, and fire services. There has also reportedly been little direct support from the Department of Homeland Security. Nonetheless, most mall security directors report additional training for their officers, the implementation of policies regarding suspected terrorist activity and the creation of emergency response plans. The authors consider these results in light of public fear, the perceived risk of another terrorist attack, and the priorities of mall security directors surveyed.
TL;DR: The authors examines rationales for the concept of bureaucratized imagination and how this concept has infiltrated specific domestic security initiatives and highlights how these images developed their own particular logic for security policy, becoming increasingly institutionalized in a security paradigm premised upon images of the merely possible.
Abstract: This paper examines U.S. domestic security policy in the period immediately after 9/11. Official assessment of the circumstances surrounding 9/11 highlighted a lack of imagination in security policy as the major contributing factor to what had transpired. To address policy lapses attributed to failures of imagination it was recommended that for security purposes the practice of imagination become “bureaucratized”. The paper examines rationales for the concept of bureaucratized imagination and how this concept has infiltrated specific domestic security initiatives. Images were created to formulate and modify the uncertainties surrounding future threats to security. These images were then employed to translate uncertainties into risk-based security initiatives. The paper highlights how these images developed their own particular logic for security policy, becoming increasingly institutionalized in a security paradigm premised upon images of the merely possible.
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between workplace-related stressors and maladaptive emotional and behavioral outcomes was examined via personal interview data from a private-sector corporation using Robert Agnew's general strain theory as a guiding framework.
Abstract: Using Robert Agnew's General Strain Theory as a guiding framework, the relationship between workplace-related stressors and maladaptive emotional and behavioral outcomes was examined via personal interview data from a private-sector corporation. Victims of aggressive behavior, such as those who had been attacked or threatened physically, insulted or harassed by phone, insulted or called names, bothered with unwanted sexual advances, threatened of job security, set up for failure, or mistreated in some other way were more likely to maladaptively cope in various ways. Other less blatant mistreatment such as being kept from obtaining a raise, deprived of privileges given to others, denied training, or treated as if one did not exist revealed a similar differentiating relationship. Limitations and policy implications that accompany the findings are provided to inform organizations in their efforts to promote a safe, stable, and effective work environment.
TL;DR: A novel bi-leveled approach is elaborated for helping company indoor security management to jointly carry out security vulnerability assessments and an additional framework is suggested to guide outdoor security management collaboration.
Abstract: Two aspects are important when it comes to guaranteeing an effective and efficient security policy in a chemical industrial cluster. The first issue involves obtaining an acceptable level of collaboration between the different enterprises forming the cluster. The second topic is to ensure that an adequate level of security personnel – quantitative as well as qualitative – is present on the cluster premises. At present, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no approaches are available for enhancing cross-company collaboration concerning security topics, or for evaluating security staffing levels. This paper elaborates a novel bi-leveled approach to deal with both these important security management aspects in chemical industrial areas. A framework is elaborated for helping company indoor security management to jointly carry out security vulnerability assessments. An additional framework is suggested to guide outdoor security management collaboration. Furthermore, an evaluation instrument is proposed to set adequate security manning levels.