Crime (fraud, theft and criminality) risks are risks that are the result of criminal behaviour. Risks emanating from crime can have a material impact on the operations and financial position of an organisation as a result of a direct or indirect loss.
The majority of crime is directly or indirectly related to people (employees), either as a result of employees perpetrating/ assisting to perpetrate crime (e.g. due to greed, opportunity, lifestyle, pressure or desperation) or by their failure to prevent crime. Crime is often rooted in HR/People.
While crime generally manifests itself in financial losses (see example above), it can also impact many other areas, including operations (due to inability to operate), reputation and strategy (e.g. insufficient resources to execute strategy).
Crime can have a major impact on your ability to operate and the financial performance of your organisation. These impacts can be immediate and significant or happen over a period of time but will have a lasting effect on the organisation.
Fraud, theft and criminality risk management starts with a review of the potential criminal threats facing the organisation, the level of governance – processes, procedures, systems and people management and the effectiveness of controls throughout the organisation.
The management of fraud, theft and criminality risk will ensure that the organisation is better equipped to identify, deter, prevent and deal with fraud, theft and criminal incidents or situations in a structured and effective way.