Business as Usual: An Evaluation of the Small Business and Crime Initiative

The Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (PRC Unit) was formed in 1998 as a result of the merger of the Police Research Group (PRG) and the Research and Statistics Directorate. The PRC Unit is now one part of the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office. The PRC Unit carries out and commissions research in the social and management sciences on policing and crime reduction, broadening out the role that PRG played. The PRC Unit has now combined PRG's two main series into Police Research Series, continuing PRG's earlier work. This will present research material on crime prevention and detection as well as police management and organisation issues. Research commissioned by PRG will appear as a PRC Unit publication. Throughout the text there may be references to PRG and these now need to be understood as relating to the PRC Unit. C Forewor d Crimes against businesses occur at a very high rate, cause significant losses and affect the quality of lives of those working in them. These problems can be particularly acute for small businesses, threatening their economic viability. The Small Business and Crime Initiative (SBCI), described in this report, is the first major project to estimate and address significant crimes against all types of small business. The positive findings of the evaluation – with particularly marked falls in commercial burglary – demonstrate the potential of such initiatives to achieve substantial reductions in crime. The research also develops our understanding of repeat victimisation. New evidence suggests that chronic repeat victimisation moves over time, with premises similar and close to current targets particularly vulnerable to future attacks. This has important implications for crime prevention practitioners who need to monitor these patterns and take early action. Acknowledgements This evaluation has been conducted with the full cooperation of the team implementing the Small Business and Crime Initiative. Their hard efforts gave us something worth looking at. They were also very helpful to us, in keeping records assiduously, answering innumerable questions openly and honestly, and in providing welcome hospitality whenever we visited the project offices. We have also been happy to receive comments on working drafts. John Burrows, the leader of the initiative, is a seasoned researcher, with a long-term interest in crime against business. He was extremely helpful in thinking through the evaluation design and in improving the text of the report as well as in giving us full access …