Business crime reduction partnerships: examining a holistic approach

Purpose: There has been a widespread move in England’s city centres to a business crime reduction partnership (BCRP) model that welcomes businesses from all commercial sectors and that operate during day time and night time trading hours, and that seeks to tackle a broad range of crimes and associated behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether this new holistic approach offers benefits that narrower models do not. Design/methodology/approach: This study draws upon data from a multi-year examination of the Gloucester City Safe BCRP, including quantitative analysis of 4,523 offences recorded by the partnership and qualitative analysis of 149 interviews with its members. Findings: In Gloucester there was a small minority of offenders who commit offences against more than one type of business, who offend during both the day time and night time trading hours and who commit more than one type of offence. There is value, therefore, in partnerships bringing together businesses from different commercial sectors and that operate in the day and night time economies to coordinate their efforts to tackle such activity. Practical implications: Sharing information among partnership members via e-mail and secure web-based platforms helps raise awareness concerning offenders and the offences that they commit which in turn can be used to prevent offences from occurring. Social implications: This inclusive holistic BCRP model can lead to an increased sense of community cohesion for its members arising from the collective effort of multiple types of businesses. Originality/value: The authors are not aware of other studies that have considered these issues.