Risk Management in Justice and Security Organizations

Risk Management in Justice and Security Organizations

Introduction

Risk management is essential to the security and well-being of any organization. Risk is actually an uncertainty of financial loss, or a variation between actual and expected results. Risk is neither good nor bad; it is simply a deviation from the expected. It is the consequences of the risk that may result in something good or bad and work to either destabilize the working of a project or produce better than expected results (Reiss, n.d.). The purpose of risk management is to identify potential problems before they occur so that planning can be done to avoid adverse circumstances that might arise in a project. Risk management is a continuous process and involves many different kinds of analysis at various levels. The first step in the process is the defining of the risk management strategy followed by the identification of the risks and then analyzing them and later handling them which would require the implementation of risk mitigation plans. Every area requires different kinds of risk management plans. Two important areas, justice organizations and security industries also require risk management but they have different things to consider in the process.

Discussion

Planning for risk and Identification of risk sources

Identification of risk sources provides an understanding of the circumstances that might impact the ability of the project to meet the desired objectives. The identification of risk starts before the initiation of the project and they continue to be identified throughout the project. When it is identified, it is first assessed for the probability of its occurrence, the level of impact it will have on various factors that include the cost, scope and schedule of the project and then prioritized accordingly. Attention is then required to be paid to devise plans to minimize the effects of those risks that can have more serious consequences. This process requires the devising of the mitigation steps or a contingency plan. The former is sometimes costly while the later one is either implemented before the occurrence of the event or after it. The prior implementation of the plan can help in reducing the effects of the risk or sometimes are also able to remove the risk altogether while those that are implemented after the event occurs can only help in the reduction of the impact of the risk.

Costs associated in managing risk

Risk management is an ongoing process and it is a discipline in which new techniques and tools emerge from time to time. New ideas emerge and are acknowledged and accepted and hence effective risk management requires regular proper training of the people responsible for it. An organization also requires updating its risk management plans regularly with the identification of new risks and with the changes in strategies in terms of handling those existing risks. But costs are associated with managing risk projects. Assessing and addressing the risk, both incur cost on the organization. In terms of assessing the risk, costs include implementing the risk ...