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This section of the toolkit explains how to assess crime
risks and helps you to compile a risk table in order to highlight
the main challenges your building faces.
Introduction to risk matrices
This stage of the analysis will help you to understand what
crime risks are faced within your building or site. This looks
both at
the
likelihood
and potential impact of different crime types occurring in the
future. The information on the risk table will compare:
- The level of risk for each crime type (both the likelyhood
of a risk occurring and the scale of the problem if it did occur)
- Who would likely undertake the crime / who has undertaken the
crime
- The time of day the crime has / could occur
To ensure a comprehensive set of crime and
incident risks are considered, it will be important to consult
different users of the building.
This consultation should take a wide range of views from the clinical
or teaching staff to the support staff. Additionally, it would
be useful to consult with patient groups, pupils and parents and
school Governors to create a balanced view of the perceived risks
that different user groups face. By seeking support the solutions
you chose will be more likely to be effective.
By weighing up the impact and likelihood of the incident, the
resultant risk matrix will help you to prioritise your future actions
on
your
site.
Compiling a risk matrix
This section will help you to identify who to consult, and provides
guidance and templates for compiling your risk matrix.
Stage 1: User consultation
 In
order to identify all the actual risks and also the risks which
others may feel to be of concern, you should consult with the
different users of your site. This could
take place in an informal group presentation which would also update
them
on
the
work you
have
done thus far.
The
users should be presented with the following information:
-
The map of crimes and incidents that have occurred (produced
in step 1) and a summary of the main crime types that have
been faced
-
A complete list of all crime and incident risks. It may help
to consider crimes that other institutions face to ensure
that crimes that
are not at the front of your consultees' minds are not
forgotten.
Users to consult: For hospitals:
-
Clinical staff
-
Support staff
-
Patient groups
For schools:
-
Teaching staff
-
Support staff
-
Pupils
-
Parents
-
School governors
The following classifications may be useful in stimulating discussion
on the subject.
Situational
Crime Risks
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Social Crime Risks |
Vandalism
-
Other criminal damage
-
Graffiti
-
Burglary
-
Arson
-
Theft
-
Vehicle crime
|
-
Robbery
-
Bullying
-
Assault
-
Drug / Substance Misuse
-
Anti-social behaviour
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Stage 2: List risks
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Write
a list of all the types of crimes and incidents that
that the school or hospital has faced in the past and
those that you think may occur in the future.
These
should be individually numbered. An example from Case
Study B can be viewed
by clicking the thumbnail to the left.
You
can simply draw a table up manually, or alternatively
you could use a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft
Excel to compile your data.
Download
a risk table template in Microsoft Excel format
here
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Stage 3: Create a risk matrix
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For each of the potential crimes and incidents that you have
identified from both the analysis of previous crimes and liaison
with the users, you will need to identify:
-
The likelihood of the crime occurring in the
future (1 low probability to 5 high probability).
You can use the findings of the site evaluation and the
surveillance analysis to inform your judgment about likelihood.
-
The impact of the crime should it occur (1 low
impact to 5 high impact)
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View a template for your risk matrix by clicking the
thumbnail on the left.
Download
this template (PDF 21kb)
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A sample risk table of this for a school has been partially
completed and can be viewed by clicking the thumbnail to the
left.
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It is useful to keep updating the risk table as changes are
made to the property or site to ensure that all current risks
are accounted for to support strategies to reduce the risks
that have been identified.
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It is interesting to note that there is often a big difference
between the perception of the crime problem and the actual crimes
that have been recorded, as seen in the example from Case
Study C to the left.
The hospital trust identified the key crime issue as theft.
However, there are over twenty times the number of incidents
of abusive and aggressive behaviour than there are thefts
in the A&E department.
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Stage 4: Identify ways to manage risk
This final step is to suggest different ways that each of the
risks that you have identified could be managed. The methods could
be through design changes, physical changes (such a putting in
access control measures), management or operational changes (such
as staffing the school gates during the times when children access
and leave the school), or through use of training of staff.
Start with the risks that have the greatest impact (those in pink)
and then work your way across and down through the table, to the
risk that are in blue, those with the lowest level of likelihood
and impact.
It may help to refer to the maps of crime and incident locations (step
1) and site surveillance and movement (step
3) when looking at measures to reduce crime risk as this
will help you to identify how the design and the crime risks
link together.
top of page Checklist
Have you:
-
Consulted with users to determine current and possible
crime risks to the site?
-
Listed these and numbered each risk?
-
Inserted each number into a risk matrix?
-
Identified which risks are high or low priority?
-
Identified what measures you will need to take for
each risk?
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Click here to
view a pdf document
containing all the checklists from this toolkit (310kB)
Click here for a text-only
version of the checklist
Achievements from
this step
By creating a risk matrix in consultation with users,
you should now be aware of the full range of risks that your site
currently faces, as well as the concerns of people who use the
site. These risks are now stored in a prioritised matrix ready
for the next stage of developing the crime prevention strategy.
It is worth ensuring that the list and the matrix is continually
updated as further incidents occur.
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