EVIDENCE-BASED LP
Making Judgments Only on Behavioral Cues Or Actions
R
etailers in the late 1970s started to realize they needed more-focused people and property protection, and chains started changing security departments to loss prevention. As time went on, practitioners began moving from a “catch more thieves to win” attrition model to a more proactive stance. I’ve written before that deterrence doesn’t often work, and we’re all working away to improve ways to convince offenders not to launch an attack. But many more determined or distracted thieves refuse to be dissuaded from initiating damaging and dangerous crime attempts. So many retailers continue to reluctantly apprehend undeterred offenders to try and establish some negative consequences, discourage future theft, and recover property. LP practitioners need to be morally and legally balanced and be more efficient by focusing detention efforts (starting with the requisite observation) on those exhibiting the most theft-action behaviors and most likely to cause the most harm to others or their possessions.
Dr. Hayes is director of the Loss Prevention Research Council and coordinator of the Loss Prevention Research Team at the University of Florida. He can be reached at 321-303-6193 or via email at rhayes@lpresearch.org. © 2020 Loss Prevention Research Council
bad relationships, bad meals, and bad encounters. Violent crime (rape, abuse, and homicide) investigators profile or note crime and crime scene clues that might indicate premeditation or a situational, opportunistic attack. The type of encounter, the attack versus discovery site, and other behavioral indicators might signal offender experience, motive, and level of organization. Similarly, victim exposure and routine or special activities (victimology) can help explain who might have encountered them, including offenders and witnesses. In a store-theft scenario, quick situational evaluation
We focus on actual behaviors or activities, not thoughts or biological, genetic, or cultural characteristics. Professional LP practitioners never profile appearance.
Behavior and Crime
Human beings often signal their intentions and next moves through utterances, social media postings, people interactions, and spatial movements. Actions can provide clues and cues that a person is considering, preparing to, or currently victimizing someone or their possessions. Human actions can also generate legal evidence of an intentional criminal act. So we focus on actual behaviors or activities, not thoughts or biological, genetic, or cultural characteristics. Professional LP practitioners never profile appearance; we use evidence-informed observation to detect a possible crime in progress, including clusters of contextual cues appearing to articulate a narrative, a logical hypothesis. The clustered cues appear linked, related, progressive, and indicate that an individual or individuals may be preparing to remove another’s property without permission, to defraud or intimidate someone, and/or to attack another person.
should also be behaviorally based and, eventually, evidence based. Our team looks for and conducts relevant research to inform this process (science to practice). In this column, it seemed appropriate to feature a little more thought on enhancing thief detection and surveillance processes since national data show in-store theft continues at very high levels. Humans committing criminal acts not only give off cues as we discussed, but also may be dangerous since criminal offenders don’t normally want to be caught, could have violent histories, could be armed, and may be impaired by drugs, alcohol, or mental illness.
In-Store Theft behavior
Part of describing problems to solve them involves the “what, why, and how” of theft activity. Theft video footage, interviewed offenders, witnesses, and victims, and field-testing different conditions all guide best practice. The idea is to systematically identify logical human theft behavioral indicators. We want to distinguish deviant action cues from innocuous or simply strange activity. What we’ve learned so far is that no single behavior, such as looking around, signals preparation to steal. It could signal the
Whom Do We Watch, and How Do We Respond?
I’ve discussed this important topic before and was asked to revisit it now. We detect possible deviant behavior by noting clusters of behavioral and other cues in a distinct context. Humans assess places and other people to avoid LP MAGAZINE
by Read Hayes, PhD, CPP
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JULY–AUGUST 2020
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