P050 - Impact of crime and fear of crime on small and medium entrepreneurs and the protective actions they employ

• In Event: Poster Session & Ice Cream Social

Abstract

Crime committed against small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) threatens their stability and communities' economic and social tissue, negatively affecting the whole society. When law enforcement and public administration's crime prevention strategies are ineffective, entrepreneurs are forced to apply protective measures at their own cost.
In this study, we examined the impact of crime on SMEs in Sweden, the entrepreneurs’ trust in public stakeholders and the measures they took to protect their businesses.
An online questionnaire was distributed among entrepreneurs in the 21 Swedish regions, obtaining 1,552 valid answers. Almost 50% of the entrepreneurs indicated that they (or their businesses) had been victims of crime on at least one occasion in the prior five years. The crime most often committed against them was theft/robbery, followed by vandalism, invoice fraud, and cybercrime. While 24.7% of the entrepreneurs who were victimized did not report the crimes to the police, from those who did report, only 7.6% saw the crimes prosecuted. More than 44.0% of participants opted to install security alarm systems on their premises, 35.5% installed CCTV cameras, and 22% installed security doors and locks. Despite these measures, 86.3% believed that nowadays, no business is secure against crime.
We concluded that the entrepreneurs’ lack of trust in the police and the local administration forced them to find their own strategies according to the crimes they suffered.

Authors

• Larysa Bielik, Mid Sweden University

• teresa silva, Mid Sweden University