Security culture

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Security culture

Security culture is a cognitive concept, that

  • looks into how groups of people perceive things and how this perception can be explained/predicted/modified;
  • depends on culturally embedded meanings of risk/security.

Security consciousness becomes a culture when a community/nation as a whole adopts this awareness and demonstrates that those behaviours which violate security are unacceptable. Security culture can be applied at two levels of analysis:


Description and backgrounds

Cultural factors

Behaviour has cultural roots that need to be understood. Cultural conceptions of risk, security and solutions to security problems vary according to the organization of political and social relations, common values or worldviews of a system/culture.

Criminological research has typically identified cultural (and socialization-related) factors in relation with crime occurrence and risk of crime (actual threat): cultural norms, political culture, ideological constructions.[1]. Following examples are pointed out:

  • Cultural norms that define masculinity and act as enablers for the practice of violence by marginalized young men, feeling themselves excluded from normal paths of enacting the gender-specific norms they have been socialized into, in order to demonstrate virility.
  • Cultural norms that define masculinity and dehumanize people who derive from the dominant culture of normalcy (e.g. violence against homosexual males).
  • Political culture providing a breeding ground for hate crimes against people representing otherness.
  • Ideological constructions of social systems such as the family that involves a sense of right of – even violent – control e.g. of men over women.
  • Cultural norms of acceptable violence such as in sport, schools and entertainment that can however trigger excesses of violence.


Personal vs. social fear of crime

Among the important results from security culture analysis on the citizen level is the distinction between “personal” and social fear of crime and its interrelation[2]:

  • Personal fear of crime (crime perceived as an individual or an individualized problem)

Actual insecurity particularly increases social fear of crime (perception of crime as a problem “out there”) but decreases personal fear of crime (perception of crime as an individual concern).

  • Social fear of crime (crime perceived as a problem “out there” in the society, irrespective of personal impact)

Social fear of crime reduces personal fear of crime: Strong knowledge and interpretative contexts present on the national level are a cultural factor that decreases citizens’ individual perception of insecurity.


Security related aspects and benefits

  1. Security culture impacts behaviour and perception in a positive or negative way.
  2. If public/social perception of risks and security remains unconsidered in security installations and measures, these measures are often ineffective:
  • People behave according to their cultural roots and not because planners want them to do so – accordingly they react to security measures differently.
  • Citizens’s conceptions of security solutions are based on their cultural roots, the cultural norms of the society and organization forms they live in: they have certain expectations and pictures, also from new objects/places/measures.
  • Citizens conceptions and perceptions strongly correlate with history and what they individually recall: did the region/nation face severe security problems in history? How did the region/nation/government handle this? – If there is awareness, the need for protection is more urgent.
  • Counter-terrorism design reflects a nations security culture in terms of terrorism security, which is varying across nations and is particularly pronounced in countries with higher attack histories (government level). Counter-terrorism good design is considered to include risk response and integrating protective security measures.


Approaches how to address it

  • Consider public perceptions and conceptions of risk and security (from studies, surveys etc.);
  • Involve citizens (see: citizen participation) in the planning process to find out:

- Would they use and accept the planned structures/objects/security installations?

- Do the planned issues correspond to their ideas?

- What would they need to feel safer?

- Do they realize the risk/security problem and the need of the measure?

- Do they need additional information and education?

  • Provide information on backgrounds: planning principles and standards, national security concerns and problems, ways and options to counteract, handling of new installations etc.
  • Identify and analyze the social context to which the tool/measure is applied;
  • Use a comprehensive concept to identify vulnerability in order to reflect the multidimensionality of threats;
  • Identify and address future factors of vulnerability and resilience;
  • Identify citizens’ self-perceptions of vulnerability and resilience;
  • Identify citizens’ self-perception of their coping capabilities;
  • Analyze the distribution of gaps between felt and factual security across society;
  • Analyze the relevant public security cultures on both the level of government and the level of citizens.





Critics

Security culture has not remained uncontested. This is in particular because it typically lacks empirical substantiation. Other concepts, as for example applied in urbanization studies, strongly argue that differences between actual and perceived security are mainly media constructs, especially the salience media assign to crime incidents so to grasp public fear and catch attention for their product. Referring to studies in the UK, readers of boulevard newspapers (“tabloids”) have twice the probability to exhibit specific fear of crime (violence, burglary and car crime) than readers of quality press (“broadsheets”).[3] This assumption nevertheless deserves contextualization, for which culture also appears to be a relevant dimension. In fact, readers of tabloids arguably belong to different social strata by trend than readers of higher quality press, and may be confronted with more difficult realities. Therefore, empirical results of this kind should be complemented by an analysis of the social, if not cultural context.



Footnotes and references

  1. ↑ Rob(ert Douglas) White and Daphne Habibis, Crime and Society. Oxford et al.: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 67-68.
  2. ↑ Andrea Jerković/Alexander Siedschlag: Primary Interpretation of Survey Findings to Identify National Citizen Security Cultures. WWEDU Center for European Security Studies, Analytical Standpoint, no. 12 (November 2008). Retrieved from http://www.european-security.info/asp12.pdf [2012-04-03].
  3. ↑ United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007. London: Earthscan 2007 <http://mirror.unhabitat.org/pmss/getElectronicVersion.aspx?nr=2432&alt=1>, ch. 3.


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