Crime Issues : when will the business community tackle the genie?

Abstract

“Commercial and recreational areas are a mecca magnet for crime”… thus stated the crime analyst. “Nah”, retorted the entrepreneur, “it is only a figment of the imagination”. It is I daresay! Only a figment of a figment that these areas are safe, it is…. Such is the perception of safety that bothering to assess the reality is short of one line from the bottom of the to-do list. The need for an analysis of the impact that the industry (be it service or manufacturing or otherwise) has on the crime and its social impact is rarely expressed as against the oft-trumpeted impact of crime on the industry’s well-being. The need to think inversely should be pushed to the top of the agenda since the industry is fast encroaching on and likewise being boxed in by a growing population density, an exponential increase in dwelling density, a move toward intensive mixed use, the aggregation of businesses in concentrated areas as well as an evolution of recreation and leisure trends that are experiencing short-term concentrations of people and services in very small and highly vulnerable areas.