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Retail Crime Control: A New Operational Strategy

NCJ Number
172697
Journal
Security Journal Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: August 1997 Pages: 225-232
Author(s)
R Hayes
Date Published
1997
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper outlines the concept of prevention-marketing as a means of retail crime and loss control (CLC) designed to improve deterrence in a more cost-effective manner than provided by other approaches and to allow for more focus, better coordination, empirical testing, and meaningful training.
Abstract
Prevention-marketing focuses on influencing the ideas and actions of potential offenders in stages by delivering CLC initiatives into zones of influence. Prevention-marketing aims to reduce crime attempts by using four methods: social control, benefit denial, asset surveillance, and asset control. Procedures include employee awareness initiatives, joint mass media prevention efforts, community programs, identification marking of selected items, civil actions to recover damages against criminals, procedural controls that restrict access. Security systems include ink tags, closed-circuit television, merchandise display alarms, access control systems, lighting, mirrors, barriers, locks, and secure fixtures. The first zone of influence is the actual item to be protected. The other zones are the interior location, the area around the building, the wider community, and the home. Using a multifaceted, multilevel prevention marketing effort can improve the success of loss prevention efforts. Figures and 28 references