Formula For Theft?
I have a theory about risk for internal theft. I believe there’s a formula that can help indicate the probability for internal theft. It looks like this:
Need + Opportunity + (Benefit > Risk) = Higher risk for internal theft.
In other words, if an employee has a need (Money problems, personal problems, etc.) and an opportunity is presented (Money left unsecured or in the open, etc.) AND, if the employee perceives the benefit of filling the need with that opportunity to be greater than the risk of the consequences for doing so, then there is a much higher probability that the employee will steal.
A non employee theft scenario would be a situation where a car is driving down a 2-lane highway, behind a slow moving vehicle, say 25 mph in a 55 mph zone, and the driver is late for work. The driver of the vehicle in the rear needs to get to work as quickly as possible because he’s late, and therefore probably in some trouble. He NEEDS to pass the slower car and be able to travel the speed limit.
An opportunity is presented when the cars get to a straightaway, with a dotted middle line, a passing zone. The driver of the rear vehicle now must assess the benefit versus risk. He looks ahead, and if there are no oncoming vehicles in sight, then he may perceive the benefit of passing to be greater than the risk of an accident. However, if there is oncoming traffic, the opposite would be true.
I see one of our functions as Loss Prevention professionals as helping our people do a couple of things to minimize our exposure to theft using this formula. We have to either remove the opportunities (No passing zones) or, we have to make sure the risk far outweighs the benefit by minimizing the exposure and therefore the benefit, and by maximizing the risk by following the procedures, inspecting what we expect, and holding ourselves and our employees accountable for any breakdowns.
So, I’m interested to hear what anyone else thinks about this? Do you agree? Disagree? Let’s discuss.
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Originally published at The Bunker Blog. Please leave any comments there.