The landscape and environment of supply chain in Malaysia has been quietly transforming over the years. For a long time, logistics and transportation industries was seen as something ordinary as we think about old lorry or trucks, low wages, intensity of labour and the loading and unloading of cargo manually managed by manual labourers. Transportation and logistics management is related to supply chain management in order to meet the demand of customer requirements and a mandatory large network distribution for cargoes. New consumer competitive requirements and technological advancement have changed the dynamics of what was once considered a brick-and-mortar- business; phasing out those who stay and stuck in a rut, while rewarding those who diversify and adapt to new ways in managing supply chain management. In today’s economy, every business organization is working continuously finding solutions on reducing its bottom line in order to get its profits up; as top line growth is very critical to move their business forward and remain competitive in doing business. In today’s supply chain and logistics business, one area that can help organizations profitability which is often overlooked or neglected is the prevention of cargo crime and threat. The need for cargo security is very critical to help the logistics industry in combating the continuing increases in cargo crime. Cargo crime is not isolated event by itself but security management and control measures have to be driven across the supply chain, cross borders and integrate an ongoing awareness in every single point of interaction with the cargoes. Therefore, the security of the supply chain can only be as secured as the security of all the steps and processes that have been taken before; that is why it is important to apply it across the whole supply chain. The term, cargo crime or theft represents any stealing of cargoes from premises or hijacking of cargoes from trucks, rail cars or ships from the point of origin to their destination. It is considered cargo crime if it is stolen at any point between its origin, its destination and anywhere in-between. Many companies do not report such crimes for several reasons as they often feel it might damage their reputation, increase their insurance premium the following year, or otherwise become an embarrassment to their organization.
Research on cargo crime in relation to crime displacement theory has been conducted in countries like United States of America (FIA, 2001), Holland (Hesseling, 1994), Australia (Claire, 2001), Sweden (Urciouli, 2010) and European Union (Europol, 2009). There is, however, very few researches related to cargo crimes that have been conducted in Malaysia. It is very important to conduct such research in Malaysia in order for the industries players and government agencies to introduce preventive measures as Malaysia is facing the same threat related to cargo security. The cargo crimes or security incidents considered in this research are those occurring within the supply chain in Malaysia where products, finished goods, components or raw materials are temporarily stored or moved between companies or locations that are part of the supply chains network.
1.1.1 Scientific Research in Criminal Justice
With an appropriate research methodology, criminology and criminal justice may draw upon many fields; both academic and applied, as interdisciplinary disciplines. As compared to other applications of scientific researches, criminal justice system is often viewed as academic intimidation, providing unnecessary clarification on what seems to be straightforward and easily understood by anyone (Hagan, 2003). It is often debated among security practitioners on whether criminal justice is a science. Unlike physical scientists, criminal justice researchers find their subject matter a topic of popular discussion where a layman’s experiences are considered well enough as a guide to the researcher. So far there are not many researchers in Malaysia who are involved in criminal justice research. In this research, a theory in criminal justice is applied as it represents an attempt to develop plausible explanations of the reality, of cargo crime. The theory applied attempts to classify and organize events; to explain the cause of events; to predict the direction of future events and to understand why and how these events occurred (Turner, 1997). Most of the scientific research is based upon a few critical assumptions. These assumptions are always related to prediction, predictability and regularity of any relation between two or more variables (Champion, 2006). In criminology and criminal justice, many of the variables studied, attitudes, ideas and opinions, are less tangible than pure science. Therefore, the presence or absence of those social and psychological variables must be inferred largely from other indirect indicators.
1.1.2 Cargo Crime Statistics in Malaysia
Cargo crime in Malaysia was once the second highest in the Asia-Pacific region due to the increase of cargo from Singapore, the world’s busiest port, is routed overland through Malaysia. The US daily, New York Times has reported, quoting figures compiled by the Transported Asset Protection Association reported that more than US$22.7 million worth of cargoes in Malaysia were reported missing or stolen from sea ports, airports, warehouses and trucks from the year 2007 to 2010 (Gooch, 2011). The reluctance of companies in Malaysia to report losses mean that the total value of goods stolen here is likely to be higher than reported. While transporting goods through Asia-Pacific countries is generally safer than other parts of the world like the Americas, Africa and Europe, there is little question that cargo theft and supply chain threat have increased throughout Asia (Gooch, 2011). It is a major concern as Malaysia is located within the international trading routes. Malaysia is increasingly becoming a key thoroughfare, as more companies ship their cargoes to and from neighbouring Singapore. It is more important as Singapore is connected with much of the rest of Southeast Asia through Malaysia road. This has led companies to take greater security measures by employing armed escort, using electronic seals and installing GPS systems onboard their trucks to prevent hijacking and other cargo crimes. Statistics in Table 1.1 below is related to cargo crime in Malaysia. The cases are classified by various types of cargo crime such as hijacking, warehouse robbery, warehouse break-in and theft of laden truck.
Table 1.1: Malaysia Cargo Crime Statistics by Type of Crime
Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Oct
Hijack 64 95 162 223 174 93 35 42 28 30 36 39 10
Warehouse Robbery 96 58 50 69 59 65 18 11 16 16 15 19 11
Warehouse Break-in 200 12 4 32 2 5 1 1 3 4 1 0 0
Theft of Laden Truck 30 17 11 33 20 19 9 7 10 11 12 17 6
Total cases 390 182 227 357 255 182 63 61 57 61 64 75 27
Source: Retrieved from reliable source.
Malaysia cargo crime statistics is classified according to the states in Malaysia as shown in Table 1.2 that illustrates the breakdown of the cargo crime cases. Most cargo crimes happened in the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. It may be due to the fact that most business entities, manufacturing facilities, sea ports, airports and good road networks are located in west coast of peninsular Malaysia.
Table 1.2: Cargo Crime Statistics by States of Malaysia
State / Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Selangor 106 97 83 22 26 5
Johor 26 68 31 12 12 4
Perak 28 22 15 10 9 4
Negeri Sembilan 9 18 16 9 2 4
Melaka 18 13 17 5 1 1
Penang 6 8 11 1 1 0
Kuala Lumpur 8 5 3 2 3 0
Kedah 7 10 4 0 1 0
Pahang 14 2 1 3 4 2
Sarawak 0 1 1 1 0 0
Sabah 0 0 0 0 0 0
Terengganu 0 1 0 0 1 1
Kelantan 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 357 245 182 65 60 21
Source: Retrieved from reliable source.
Although the trend of cargo crime is on the decline in recent years, the economic impact is still massive and the cost of cargo thefts runs into millions. Generally the trend of cargo crime has been decreasing yearly and at the moment, it is not certain why it is decreasing. Thus, this research will focus on the possible crime displacement and other application of crime displacement theory that have an impact on cargo crimes in Malaysia.
1.1.3 The effects of cargo theft
Attached below are some of the effects or consequences of cargo crime which may impact the transportation and logistics industries in Malaysia:
I. For business operating on “just-in-time (JIT)” concept, the loss of cargoes may threaten viability, particularly if insurance coverage is inadequate or compensation payments are contested.
II. Companies can be exposed to litigation, liability suits or other impacts on their brand name through crime related incidents – stolen cargoes can be expired or ineffective due to bad storage which exposes the company to dissatisfied customers who bought the goods or materials.
III. Stolen cargoes reduce profits exponentially by losses in sales opportunities of the distributors. The new ‘competitors’ (criminals) are selling the cargoes at lower prices or minimum ‘cost’ (stolen cargoes) where the genuine distributors will never be able to compete.
IV. Furthermore, the illegal sale of stolen cargoes undercuts prices in legitimate businesses.
1.1.4 The barriers to cargo security
Lack of security measures may be caused by great challenges within the business communities as security tends to be their last resources in budget or investment. On top of that there are many barriers in handling cargo crime in Malaysia. The following are some of the barriers in enforcing or implementation of a good security control measures in the cargo crime arena.
• The lack of effective cargo crime reporting systems
• The weakness of current cargo crime laws and prosecution
• The lack of knowledge on cargo crime
• Inadequate support for cargo crime task forces either from authority or businesses
• The need to improve local law enforcement expertise on cargo crime
• The need for more effective cargo security technologies and preventive measures
• Cargo security standards are lacking
1.2 Problem Statement
To better understand crime displacement, a research that is directed to its effects should be initiated instead of relying on the primary outcomes of crime prevention initiatives. Such research would be concerned with a main program that provides a setting for better understanding of crime displacement. Such research would also allow its researchers to focus on methodological problems associated with the measurement of crime displacement, in particular those effects can be scattered over different areas, timing and different types of offenses (Barr & Pease, 1990). The crime incidents are not uniformly distributed over area and randomly distributed. Chainey and Ratcliffe (2005) reiterated that numerous researchers have identified various sociological, temporal and behavioural characteristics of offenders and crime locations that confirm the non-random nature of crime clustering.
Building on both routine activities theory by Cohen and Felson (1979); Felson (1998) and rational choice perspective by Cornish and Clarke (1986 & 1987); Clarke and Felson (1993); Brantingham and Brantingham (1993a) presented the idea that crimes occur when criminally motivated individuals come into contact with suitable victims or targets as they travel between places or through areas that are known to them and wherein they are comfortable. Brantingham and Brantingham (1993a) commented that within cities, criminal behaviour is highly patterned and frequently localized. Based on the design characteristics of urban areas and their demographic and socioeconomic groups cluster therein, certain areas will experience disproportionate amounts of particular types of crime (Brantingham & Brantingham, 1993b). The opinion in combination with the area specific efforts by crime prevention practitioners to reduce crime is closely related to the displacement of crime. The central tenet of crime displacement is that criminally motivated offenders, when prevented from committing crime at a particular location or in a particular way, will not be dissuaded from criminality but will simply be displaced to commit crime in some other area. Repetto (1974) identified five forms of displacement as the result of blocked criminal opportunities. Barr and Pease (1990) took a more theoretical approach in considering crime displacement and concluded that displacement of crime is simply a reorganization or redistribution of the area and time in which a potential offender comes in contact with a potential victim. Most studies of crime displacement tend to test for spatial displacement (Hesseling, 1994). However, in a rare non-spatial example, Yang (2008) focused on economic risks and loss resulting from changes in Philippines Custom policy, identifying predominantly method displacement, where changes and increases in enforcement of Custom policy caused adaptations in methods of evasion of payments duties.
Crime displacement may eliminate the effectiveness of crime reduction operations by pushing crime to nearby areas or other crime types. As Clarke (1995) noted that the uncritical acceptance of crime displacement may also mean that increases in crime, which might have occurred anyway, have sometimes been wrongly attributed to displacement. Where crime displacement does occur, it is usually the result of situations that force criminal to access nearby opportunities not within the confines of the operation. This idea was echoed by Eck (1993) who concluded that prevention and crackdown efforts focused on unique situations will have less displacement than prevention or crackdown efforts focused on general situations. Cornish and Clarke (1987) conceptualized crime displacement from the perspective of rational choice theory. From their assessment of the choices made by criminals in the decision to commit crimes and their choice of targets, it is believed that crime displacement could best be explained and understood by concentrating on the criminal’s personal decisions and choices made in committing crime. Cornish and Clark (1987) viewed the association of decisions, crime opportunity, implementation costs and also the benefits related to crime offenses to establish the confine of crime displacement within types of offenses. If this is the situation, then it becomes less persuasive to justify a generalized approach to crime displacement and requires practitioners and researchers to be more open to the possibility that crime displacement might or might not occur with different spatiotemporal (and other displacement typology) characteristics for different crime types and situations.
Hijacking of trucks with cargoes is a great concern as well as a burden to Malaysia economy and the logistics industries. It will also impact the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Malaysia as high cargo crime rate will cause the investors to move away from Malaysia. It is very important that industry players such as Malaysia Police Force, security professional and logistics industries working together to develop a cooperative approach in order to minimize the challenging the problem encountered. It can only be successful if all the party involved combined their effort and be cooperative to overcome the challenges. In order to achieve the cooperative approach; it is utmost important that criminological analysis of the phenomenon such as crime perpetrator, crime victims, judiciary and justice system, the development of crime prevention and crime theories explaining the phenomenon be made. Despite the highly scientific relevance, it appears that very few research being conducted in Malaysia to identify factors related to cargo crime within the supply chain security in Malaysia. We need to have a better understanding as to why there is no absolute reduction in crime despite numerous preventive measures taken by the authority to prevent cargo crime.
The source of risk for cargo crime within the supply chain comes from theft opportunities that are available. The criminal has flexibility relative to time, place, method and the type of crime committed. Hesseling (1994) reiterated that criminals are normally limited in their movement, adaptability and flexibility to that of a particular crime, place, time and method. These opportunities are highly specific and concentrated on time and location. This is the result of required scheduling and fixed assets of normal activities within the supply chain network. This gives criminals the opportunity to really attack at the weakest point within the supply chain e.g. certain area of the Malaysia roadway or even certain trucking companies. The risk or threat of cargo crime can be reduced by initiating resilient countermeasures focusing on reducing theft opportunities. The theory of crime displacement states that within the potential criminals’ capability, the criminals will change their criminal pattern in response to countermeasures implemented by the authorities or security professionals. Figure 1.2 clearly shows that there has been a change in cargo crime pattern. A first glance indicates a change in criminal pattern and more research need to be conducted to understand the changes. Figure 1.3 revealed the total number of people detained by the Police under Malaysia crime preventive laws i.e. Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance (EO) 1969. During this period, the problem of attacks against trucks or cargoes received more attention than before. The Police effort to address the hijacking cases where it rampantly happened within the supply chain network has actually changed the cargo theft pattern instead of absolute reduction. The crime displacement effect may be one likely explanation for this development. This fulfils Hesseling’s (1994) conclusion that crime displacement is possible, but not inevitable consequence of crime prevention.
In 2009, a total of 716 suspected criminals were arrested and have been detained under Section 4 (1) of Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance (EO) 1969 (Shaila Kosky & Shahanaaz Habib, 2011) as shown in Table 1.3. Another 220 of them were arrested under Section 4A (1) of the Act and were banished from their residence. In 2010, 768 of them were arrested under Section 4(1) and 385 of them are detained under Section 4A (1). Those arrested are suspected to be involved in cargo crimes, theft of vehicles and various major crimes involving property. The numbers of hijacking cases reduced drastically since 2009 and this correlates with the actions taken by the Police arresting suspects and detaining them. Detainees under Section 4(1) are held in one of the three Emergency Ordinance detention centre at Simpang Renggam, Machang or Muar in Malaysia. Besides detention, Police also uses Section 4A (1) of the Emergency Ordinance; which provides banishment of suspects to other states or districts and restricts their residence for two years. The authority will also impose other conditions like reporting to the Police on a daily or weekly basis. The Police have no other better choice but were forced to use the Emergency Ordinance in cases where Police were certain that the suspected criminal had committed the crime but there were insufficient evidence for conviction in court. Sometimes the Police were unable to prosecute suspected criminals in court as the witnesses were too afraid to come forward and testify. The victims are too afraid of the criminals as these organized criminals may harm them and their family members if the case is being brought to court. On 15th September 2011 this crime preventive law has been repealed by the government and all the detainees detained under this law were released unconditionally. The numbers of cargo crime may increase again in near future as the criminals released may continue to operate again.
Table 1.3: Suspects arrested under Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance
Number of Cases Detention orders under Section 4(1) EO Detention orders under Section 4A(1) EO
Contingent/
State 2009 2010 % 2009 2010 % 2011* 2009 2010 % 2011*
Perlis 10 27 170 4 24 500 8 7 2 -71 2
Kedah 62 83 34 25 60 140 58 10 31 210 2
Penang 62 77 24 46 50 9 45 13 13 0 3
Perak 94 75 -20 58 49 -16 43 31 18 -42 6
Selangor 351 331 -6 291 238 -18 275 65 125 92 43
K/Lumpur 52 88 69 44 58 32 50 5 28 460 1
N/Sembilan 16 40 150 18 8 56 12 6 16 167 1
Malacca 9 89 889 8 25 213 27 2 25 1150 4
Johor 151 140 -7 125 80 -36 86 31 50 61 13
Pahang 103 37 -64 38 37 -3 18 33 8 -76 1
Terengganu 7 14 100 0 15 0 14 0 0 0 0
Kelantan 1 8 700 0 4 0 6 1 1 0 2
Sabah 6 14 133 3 1 -67 2 2 0 -100 0
Sarawak 47 69 47 43 52 21 56 7 12 71 5
Bukit Aman 27 97 259 8 52 170 22 7 54 671 3
Commercial Crime 11 27 145 5 15 200 NA 0 2 0 NA
Total 1009 1216 – 716 768 722 220 385 86
Note: Suspects arrested under Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 1969*Jan 1 – August 22, 2011 (the total number of cases for 2011 was not available)
Source: Sunday Star, September 11, 2011 (Bukit Aman Police)
The developing interest in crime prevention started slowly in the 70s. It has gained significant momentum in the 80s and is now becoming an important subject in criminology. Regardless of how they are designed to function; crime prevention tactics seem particularly vulnerable to having their effectiveness reduced by the occurrence of crime displacement. When criminals are prevented from committing one crime, they shift their manner of committing the crime in some way that they may replace the blocked opportunity with another unlawful act and crime, which is commonly said to be displaced (Barr & Pease, 1990). The offending patterns may shift in different ways to accommodate the introduction of preventive strategies, but with all types of displacement, the end result is the same. Crime is not ultimately prevented at all, but simply altered into different form of displacement. Because no overall reduction is achieved, crime displacement would seem to eliminate totally in any benefits that the prevention of crime may bring.
1.3 Research Questions
This research examines crime displacement in relation to cargo crime within the supply chain in Malaysia. The following are the research questions that will help to provide the focus and direction during the research:
1. What are the factors that contribute to cargo crime?
2. What are the initiatives taken by the authority to reduce cargo crime that has changed in cargo crime pattern alteration instead of absolute reduction?
3. What is the level of security control measures implemented by transportation operators to protect and minimize cargo crime?
4. What is the level of security control measures implemented at rest area along the highway and British Standard BS 5489 car park lighting requirements?
1.4 Research Objectives
The following are the objectives of this research as follows:
1. To explain the problem or issue of cargo crime using the crime displacement theory.
2. To explore the factors that contributes to cargo crime within the supply chain in Peninsular Malaysia.
3. To identify the factors that contribute to cargo crime within the supply chain in Peninsular Malaysia
4. To analyze the factors that contribute to cargo crime within the supply chain in Peninsular Malaysia
5. To examine the level of security control measures implemented by transportation operators.
1.5 Scope of Research
Cargo crimes or security incidents considered in this research are those taking place within the supply chain in peninsular Malaysia, where finished goods, products, components or raw materials are temporarily stored or moved between companies that are part of supply chains. Cargo crime arises from different theft opportunities that will always be present within the supply chain. The theory of crime displacement will provide an insight as to why there is theft or crime pattern alteration instead of absolute reduction. There are many modes of transportation for cargoes in Malaysia; either by road, rail, air or ship. This research will focus on the following:
1. Cargo crime on the road. This type of crime is defined as any theft of cargo committed during its road transportation but excluding internal petty theft. This involves hijacking cases occasionally where force, violence or threats are used against drivers and the vehicle is stolen with its load.
2. Cargo theft by robbery or hijacking during the transportation.
3. Other type of theft includes theft of laden goods where an unattended vehicle and/or trailer is stolen with the load or thefts of load from stationary vehicles by slashing the curtain of the truck or from delivery vehicles left unlocked or unattended.
4. This research will focus on both trunk roads and highways throughout peninsular Malaysia.
1.6 Limitations of Research
Due to the limitation of resources and time factor, this research will not be covering the following areas:
1. Cargo crime at harbour and airport or where the places are within the control of government agencies or business entities;
2. Cargo crime within warehouses or cargo storage premises;
3. The change in criminals’ motivation will not be addressed in this research unless the change is directly dependent on different features in transport security; and
4. Theories that offer different explanations and viewpoints regarding the driving force and motivation behind criminal behaviour. There are many different theories that offer different explanations and viewpoints regarding the driving force and motivation behind criminal behaviour.
1.7 Ethical Issues
Upholding individuals' rights to confidentiality and privacy is a central tenet of every psychologist's work. There are also many privacy issues are quirk to the research population quoted by Susan Folkman (2000). This is due to the research participants have the freedom to choose how much information about them that they will reveal and under what circumstances. Therefore researchers should be careful when recruiting participants for a study (Sangeeta, 2003). For example, it is inappropriate to obtain contact information of members of a support group to solicit their participation in research. However, we could give our colleague a letter to those who facilitates the group that explains our research study and provides a way for individuals for their feedback.
Several ethical issues have been addressed while collecting data pertaining to this research. Confidentiality and anonymity issues are strictly adhered to. Data collected from various individuals and organizations are not disclosed to anyone within the industries. It is inappropriate to obtain contact information of members of a support group to solicit their participation in the research. Cover letters that explains the objectives of this research has been distributed and provide a way for individuals to contact the researcher, if they are interested. Respondents are made aware that they are receiving the survey questionnaire because of their involvement in transportation, freight management, logistics or haulage. Their name, the name of their companies, as well as their contact information will be kept strictly confidential and will not be disclosed to any third person or in any kinds of publications or media. As such, all respondents shall be given the following assurance before obtaining their informed and valid consent:
1. The researcher shall identify himself to the potential respondents.
2. The researcher shall explain the nature of the research and its importance to the industry.
3. The researcher shall also explain the methods of completing the survey, including the time required.
4. The researcher shall provide all other information demanded by the potential respondents whether it is before survey, during the survey and after the survey as well.
5. In the case of respondents selected via snowball sampling and their identities are known to the researcher, the researcher shall keep the data collected from them in a highly confidential manner and shall never use the said data in any ways not approved by the said respondents.
6. All data obtained are used in aggregate during the analysis of data, without making any specific reference to any of the said respondents.
7. The respondents are reminded that they are under no legal or moral duty to participate in the survey, and after having consented to take part, they shall retain the absolute right to withdraw at any time without completing the survey.
The researcher has submitted the application for a clearance from the Human Research Ethics Committee, Clinical Research Initiatives – Clinical & Heath Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia Health Campus before commencing data collection process of which the approval has been granted and approval documents are attached in this thesis. Every effort to protect the confidentiality of the information has been made by researcher during data collection and interview sessions.