ProfSec27-09ps

Reviewing
Books for professionals
A problem-oriented approach:
These reviews in full, and
others, are on the ‘reviews’
part of our website.
70
A welcome
back for
handbook
The second, revised edition of the
Handbook of Crime Prevention and
Community Safety is as welcome as
the first, writes Mark Rowe.
This new edition, like the first,
has a reassuringly heavy
feel, and the reader is not
disappointed in finding the contents as
heavyweight, in a good sense. Each of
the 26 chapters, of about 6000 words
each, with full bibliographies, covers
a topic, such as crime prevention
through product design; and crime and
the built environment. Some chapters
naturally will be of more interest
and use to the private security reader
than others, such as Dr Matt Hopkins
and Prof Martin Gill’s on ‘business,
crime and crime prevention: emerging
debates and future challenges’.
Vehicle crime
Given the sheer amount of work in
bringing such a book together, it’s
not bang up to date; the most recent
citations and examples are from
2015. While that is only yesterday
in academic terms, it can be more
serious for instance in the chapter
on vehicle crime. There Barry Webb
and Rick Brown begin with the claim
that vehicle crime has been ‘boom
and bust’; namely a boom in the
20th century, leading to a peak in
the early 1990s, and a rapid decline,
‘which, at the time of writing, had
yet to abate’. That is to say the least
arguable. In fairness the authors do
acknowledge that car manufacturers
face an ‘arms race with offenders’.
Some may find it surprising that only
one chapter is devoted to cybercrime
prevention, although cyber features in
other chapters. Likewise, terrorism is
little treated anywhere, though it’s for
sure a crime that we want to prevent.
But as with any book of this type,
there’s only so much it can cover.
Whether you want to think harder
about your work, or you are taking
SEPTEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY
a masters degree in risk and security
management or a related subject, this
is a go-to book, and shall remain so
just as the first edition did for a dozen
years. At the risk of overlooking
other chapters, one useful chapter
to single out for the practitioner is
Prof Gloria Laycock’s, titled ‘What
to do - adopting a problem-oriented
approach (POP)’, that indeed covers
what practitioners ‘might do to reduce
crime here and now - not somewhere
one day’. Her chapter ranges over
‘what works’, CCTV, and crime and
disorder in city centres by day and
night. While POP is far from new, the
chapter is a fine introduction to it; also
true for so much of the book. p
CYBER AND ITS VICTIMS
Fraud is little covered in print
compared with some other crimes,
and cyber fraud even more so, which
makes a new book so welcome, by a
pair of academics.
Cyber Frauds, Scams and their
Victims by Prof Mark Button
(Portsmouth), and Dr Cassandra
Cross (Queensland University of
Technology) covers precisely what
it says, and covers it well, and in the
right order, starting with definitions.
They’ve come up with a word that’s
new to me; ‘fraudogenic’. Certainly
new technology has brought new
opportunities for fraudsters, although
we can argue whether the crimes are
entirely new, or whether the internet
has merely created ‘cyber-enabled’
frauds; or indeed both. The authors
cover this, as so much else, ably,
going through the bewilderingly
varied sorts of frauds - to do with
applying for jobs online, collection
of phantom debts; romance fraud,
identity fraud, frauds in consumer
investments, even adopting a pet.
Why some fall
The victim and technique of a fraud
come together in terms of how and
why some people fall for a fraud -
thanks again to a variety of things,
such as ‘victim lists’ (so that if
someone has been scammed, they
may be returned to, saying they’ve
been scammed, and they can recover
their money or some of it - for a fee).
Some of the techniques are mirroring
legitimate business, such as clever and
visceral salesmanship, and grooming.
On victims, the authors set out that
fraud is anything but a ‘victimless
crime’ as many are embarrassed,
or angry, besides the financial loss.
While it’s worthwhile and proper to
support victims, and indeed respond to
the crime in terms of victims, the book
does set out stereotypes against online
fraud victims - that they are ‘greedy,
gullible, uneducated and somewhat
deserving of their victimisation’.
That can make victims less likely to
report crimes, with baleful effects,
such as society not appreciating how
serious or widespread the crime is.
Nor, as some of the victims’ stories
in their own words make plain, are
those in authority necessarily showing
understanding. p
TRAVEL RISK IS PERSONAL
Understanding Personal Security and
Risk: A Guide for Business Travelers,
as the spelling suggests, is a book
by an American; a retired Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations
officer, Charles Goslin.
Other books are around on the same
subject, such as Charles Brossman’s
Building a Travel Risk Management
Program, reviewed last year. Why
choose this one? Goslin has been there
and done that, and he relates it and
draws sensible and useful conclusions.
For instance, he recalls the two
‘genuine in-flight emergencies’ that
he has experienced. Second, from
start to finish he puts his finger
on what he calls ‘the red-headed
stepchild of the overall discipline of
security’, namely personal security
training and awareness. He states the
obvious, which does want stating; that
personal security comes down to you,
the traveller, and no other; tracking
devices are all very well, but if you
are the ‘tip of the spear’ of business
development, in some obscure part of
the world, you have to apply thought,
beyond that 45 minute briefing you
had before setting off from corporate
security (or HR). Third, something
else Goslin shrewdly points out; the
world is ‘increasingly insecure’; for
instance, kidnappers may go after
mid-level employees, for smaller
ransoms, rather than take longer to get
millions for a senior exec captured. p
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