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Risk Balance and Security
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Risk Balance and Security



August 2007 | 256 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
In confronting risk, individuals and all agencies cannot simply respond with endless resources in mitigating the damage that hazards engender—they have to establish a balance. Risk Balance and Security combines the conceptual underpinnings of risk assessment and management at both the individual and agency level with a clear analysis of how these relate to challenges faced in responding to crime, terrorism, public health threats, and environmental disasters. With a new understanding of how decisions are made about threats and hazards, and how this understanding may be applied in our preparedness, prevention, and response strategies, we will be able to better conceptualize our task for enhancing security in the future.

Key Features
  • Links theoretical ideas with real world examples: Clear discussions are presented of how risk is constructed in modern society and why that is important in our efforts to develop strategies to enhance security.
  • Provides an interdisciplinary treatment of risk: To capture the realities facing public security today, ideas are drawn from a number of different disciplines.
  • Illustrates real applications of solutions to security problems: Students are shown how agencies are dealing with specific threats to security.
  • Compares individual-level and institutional-level assessments of risk and security: These divergences enable readers to appreciate the complexities of establishing security.
Intended Audience
This is an excellent text for undergraduate and graduate courses such as Disaster Research, Security, Police Studies, Emergency Planning, and Crime and Public Policy in the departments of criminology, criminal justice, political science, and public health.

 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
Chapter One: The Centrality of Security
Security Matters

 
Risk Positions

 
Approaching Security

 
Modelling Security

 
Studying Security from Many Perspectives

 
Conclusion

 
Notes to Chapter 1

 
 
Chapter Two: Values and Choices in Constructing Security
The Values of Security

 
The Invention of Risk Society

 
The Context of Risk Society

 
Applying Risk Society to Risk Balance

 
Culture and Messages About Security

 
Judging Hazards, Threats, and Risks

 
Experts

 
Routines, Experts, and Trust

 
Types of Resources

 
Security From What?

 
Security for Whom?

 
Conclusion

 
Notes to Chapter 2

 
 
Chapter Three: Crime and Security
How Much Crime and How Can It Be Addressed

 
Policing and Crime Risk

 
Protecting the Public: Community Policing and Intelligence-Led Policing

 
Who Polices Whom?

 
Security Against Crime

 
Profiling Offenders

 
Profiling Victims

 
Assessing Crime Information

 
Profiling Routines, Spaces, and Places

 
Preventing Crime?

 
Crime Events and Risk Balance

 
Conclusion

 
Notes to Chapter 3

 
 
Chapter Four: Modern Terrorism
Terrorism and Security

 
Who Are the Terrorists and What Threat Do They Pose?

 
Globalization

 
Who "We" Are

 
Intelligence: Information and Knowledge

 
"We Have Some Planes..."

 
Dealing With Vulnerability

 
Identification of Vulnerability and Vulnerability-Producting Mechanisms

 
Raising Awareness of Vulnerabiity

 
Accurate Information

 
Readiness and Response

 
Conclusion

 
Notes to Chapter 4

 
 
Chapter Five: Landscapes of Security: Health and the Environment
The Physical Landscape: Health

 
In Sickness and in Health

 
Jurisdiction and Spillover Effects

 
Brakes and Accelerators in the Local and Global Health Environments

 
Terrorist Events as Health Events

 
Summary

 
The Physical Landscape: The Environment

 
Defining Environmental Security

 
Power and Knowledge

 
The Blurry Boundaries Between Natural, Man-Made, and Other Disasters

 
The Evolution of Disaster

 
The Evolution of Hurricane Katrina

 
The Mitigation Stage

 
The Preparedness Stage

 
The Response Stage

 
The Recovery Stage

 
The Complications of Hurricane Katrina

 
Vulnerable Risk Positions

 
Communication Breakdowns

 
Failed Leadership

 
Summary

 
Conclusion

 
Notes to Chapter 5

 
 
Chapter Six: The Stages of Risk Balance and Security
Preparedness and Readiness

 
Insurance

 
Crisis Drills and Table Top Exercises: Imagining Dire Consequences

 
Cross-Agency Cooperation

 
Response

 
First Responders and Victims

 
Leadership in Response

 
The Media and Response Coordination

 
Recovery and Prevention

 
Litigation

 
Goverment Compensation

 
Returning to Normal: Re-Establishing Routines

 
Conclusion

 
Notes to Chapter 6

 
 
Chapter Seven: Concluding Thoughts
Becoming Secure: What Have We Learned?

 
Establishing Security

 
Practical Steps to Security

 
Principle 1. Choise

 
Principle 2. Decision-Making

 
Principle 3. Cooperation

 
Principle 4. Planning

 
Principle 5. Institutional Learning

 
Principle 6. Communication

 
Concluding Thoughts

 
 
Note to Chapter 7
References

 
Suggested Readings

 
 
Index
 
About the Authors

An excellent summary of theory and concepts

Professor Daniel Valentine
Department Business Studies, Regent's University
December 8, 2015

Good book for understanding security and associated risk in a broader sense

Miss Anita Finnegan
Department of Computing, Dundalk Institute of Technology
December 4, 2013

This book will be used by my phd students who research risk. It is well written. The authors are very well informed and write lucidly. A must for all beginners and adanced students of risk management.

Dr Nandish Patel
Brunel Business School, Brunel University
May 10, 2012

A useful text, applies risk in a variety of settings. Explains the connection between risk and security in contemporary society

Mr Stephen Whattam
Sociology, university of bradford
October 12, 2011

A very useful text for Security and Risk Management students.

Mrs Nikki Shelton
Department of Criminology, University of Leicester
November 18, 2010

A useful book for the event management course, but not as specific to this field as I would have liked. Some sections of the book were quite in depth and offered some insightful information with particular emphasis on the terrorist threat. Placed on the supplemental list.

Mr Gerard Ryan
Business Department, Staffordshire University
August 5, 2010

Hopefully this book will help my students to understand the relevance of risk in contemporary CJ

Dr Carol Borland Jones
Natural and Social Sciences, Gloucestershire University
April 20, 2010
Key features
  • Logical, linear organization will serve a wide audience.
  • Offers examples and explanatins in an easy-to-read and non-technical format
  • Presents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of risk assessment and public security

Sage College Publishing

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