J Hunter

Place matters: but does local leadership?

‘Place’ became significant on the UKs policy agenda when the Labour government came to power in 1997. A range of area-based initiatives were introduced to tackle neighbourhood forms of deprivation and to re-establish a sense of identity and connection between individuals and their local community. In terms of place-making, effective and inclusive participation, representation and leadership were all identified as prerequisites for the creation of sustainable communities. This article examines the extent to which local leadership and strategic vision are important in promoting higher levels of satisfaction, belonging, cohesion and participation across single tier councils in England. Questions are raised not only about the importance of local leadership in place-making, but also the environmental and organizational factors that shape local places.

Who Steals from Shops, and Why? A Case Study of Prolific Shop Theft Offenders

Despite spending around £2bn on loss prevention, twenty-two percent of retail premises in the UK experienced shoplifting during 2014–2015, with theft by customers accounting for 72% of all crime suffered by the retail and wholesale sector (Home Office, Crime Against Businesses: Findings from the 2015 Commercial Victimisation Survey. London: Home Office, 2016). There remains, however, little data to reliably determine the characteristics of the perpetrators (Dabney, Hollinger, & Dugan, Justice Quarterly, 21, 693–728, 2004). This chapter therefore draws upon police recorded crime data between 2004–2014 in order to analyse the key characteristics of shop theft offenders in an English Core City. The narrative also examines the motivations of shop theft offenders, and their perceptions of retail security, based upon interviews conducted with some of the most prolific shop theft offenders within this city. The insights provided by these interviews reveal a group of individuals who perceive their crimes as ‘victimless’, and where the actions of the retailers in terms of the placement of products and layout of stores makes shoplifting ‘an unbelievably easy’ offence to commit.