Adrian Beck

Crime and Policing in Post-Soviet Societies: Bridging the Police/Public Divide

This paper explores the current relationship between the police and the public in one of the post-Soviet states, Ukraine, and looks at the prospects for future co-operation between these two groups. It makes use of data collected from extensive surveys of the both the police and the public carried out in the city of Kharkiv. The study found high levels of mistrust of the police by the public, including considerable concerns about corruption, abuse of power and a lack of respect for the public. The research concludes by looking at the prospects for improving the relationship between the police and the public in post Soviet states.

The challenges to developing democratic policing in post-Soviet societies: The Russian experience

This paper reviews the nature of policing in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on the major challenges the country continues to face in transforming the police from guardians of the former Communist Party to servants of the public. It concludes by offering an evaluation of the reforms undertaken to date, the prospects for a more democratic and transparent Russian police service in the future, and the broader lessons that can be learnt about the deep‐seated problems faced by countries emerging from a post‐Soviet past.

Closing the Gap between the Police and the Public in Post‐Soviet Ukraine: A Bridge Too Far?

Reforming the police is one of the biggest challenges facing post‐Soviet states and in particular reducing the gulf in levels of mistrust between the police and the public. Using quantitative and qualitative data collected from Ukraine, this paper looks at the attitudes of the public towards the police and seeks to review the obstacles to future closer collaboration between them. It highlights existing differences between demographic and socio‐economic groups in terms of their attitude and willingness to collaborate with the police in the future. It also looks at the explanations for both negative and positive attitudes towards the police expressed by the members of the public and at possible barriers to closer collaboration between them.

The Importance of Visual Situational Cues and Difficulty of Removal in Creating Deterrence: The Limitations of Electronic Article Surveillance Source Tagging in the Retail Environment

Shrinkage continues to be a considerable cost to the retail industry, with a recent estimate suggesting that globally it could be as much as

Women militia officers in Ukraine: Exploring their experiences in a post‐Soviet policing organisation

278 billion a year. In addition, it is a problem that has proved difficult to resolve, despite billions of dollars of investment every year in new technologies by loss-prevention practitioners. A relatively common approach to try to reduce the extent of the problem has been the application of electronic article surveillance tags to retail products, either in the form of a soft tag (increasingly applied at the point of manufacture) or a hard tag (usually applied in the store) to deter and detect shop thieves. This study looked at the experience of one retail company that decided to switch one of its divisions from using hard tags to source-applied soft tags on clothing sold in its stores. The results were dramatic, with a 250% increase in shrinkage after 12 months in the stores with the new source tag compared with existing stores using hard tags. The study raises important questions about the importance of creating visibility and the relative difficulty of removing the tag when using security devices if deterrence is to be achieved in retail stores and the overall cost effectiveness of using source tagging as a means to reduce shrinkage.

Developing Police Management Training in Post-Soviet Societies: Understanding the Context and Setting the Agenda

This article offers an insight into the experiences of female officers working within the post‐Soviet Ukrainian militia, based on data collected from nearly 500 serving officers in Kyiv, interviews with staff and students at the National Academy of Internal Affairs and with senior members of the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior. It presents data showing that women officers are significantly more dissatisfied with their role, have a poorer relationship with their line managers and perceive that they receive a more authoritarian and directive style of management than their male counterparts. It goes on to propose a three‐tier model of reform designed to address gender discrimination in the Ukrainian militia.

Customer and staff perceptions of the role of closed circuit television in retail security

This article presents survey data from research carried out as part of a broader project aiming to develop management training for senior officers in the Ukrainian police. Findings, which are based on data about the experiences, attitudes, and priorities of currently serving police officers, are used to highlight the key areas on which future curriculum development might be focused. To date, most training for Ukrainian police managers has been weighted too heavily toward learning the law rather than developing the skills and competencies necessary to manage people effectively. It is argued that as a consequence of such differences, overseas assistance should be firmly grounded in detailed local research in order to fully understand the context within which it takes place.

Sales and Security: Striking the Balance

Closed circuit television (CCTV) is a relative newcomer to the security field. Its introduction on a wide scale required major technological developments in three areas — camera and optical design, including miniaturisation; electromechanical engineering to allow cameras to pan, tilt and zoom; and multi-camera and playback systems permitting sixteen or more camera pictures to be recorded on a single recorder, any one of which can be viewed as a live full-screen display (British Security Industry Association, 1988; 1990). CCTV reflects the refinement and commercial application of all the technology which lies behind the now familiar domestic video and camcorder.

Understanding Loss in the Retail Sector

This study reports an investigation of product theft in the electrical retail sector using an innovative methodology which involved tagging all small goods available for sale in ten stores (part of a national chain) over a two-week period. The study explores the number and value of goods sold and stolen by product type and location in the store. It adds an empirical dimension to the theoretical work of Clarke2 and others which identified the importance of opportunity in understanding offending behaviour and the potential for situational crime prevention in the retail sector.3 The study offers some evidence that location of product is associated with levels of loss and it also suggests that retailers can make an informed choice about an acceptable trade-off between sales and security.

National identity cards: The impact on the relationship between the police and ethnic minority groups

Rarely is the topic of retailing far from the top of the news agenda — not least because of the inflated role the sector now plays in the economies of countries across the world. Measures of consumer confidence, sales and retailer profits are routinely scrutinized by governments and the ‘market’ alike to get a sense of the overall well-being (or not) of an economy — if people are shopping then all is deemed well with the world! This is perhaps not surprising when the scale of the sector is considered. Within the United Kingdom, retailing now accounts for 20% of gross domestic product, generates over £311 billion in annual sales and employs in excess of 3 million people (British Retail Consortium, 2013). It is also a highly competitive market driven by a need to continually evolve to survive as consumer tastes and demands change. This is best exemplified by the rise in e-shopping which has seen consumers increasingly demand the ability to shop online whenever and wherever they so wish leaving some retailers floundering to catch up (Guardian, 2013). For some retailing has fundamentally changed the nature of popular culture in many societies with shopping becoming the pastime of choice for large swathes of the population, undertaken in the new cathedrals of consumerism where they feast upon the latest ‘must have’ products (Bainbridge, 1984; Bamfield, 2012; Dawson et al., 2008a; Kent and Omar, 2003).