Is there proof that Capital Punishment deters murders in our society? In the same vein, we can simply substitute SMS for capital punishment and accidents for murder. Both concepts share a mutual misconception. There are many studies to determine the effects of capital punishment as a deterrence but, the overwhelming concluding fact is….We simply don’t know. Why don’t we know? The data used in ALL studies of capital punishment is the “Murder rate.” The murder rate is only shows “one side” of the metric. Until we can measure the “un-murder” rate of the cases where murder was NOT committed and then tie that into the capital punishment factor, can we have a true picture of the “Success” or “Value” of the practice.
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| Capital Punishment a deterrent to Murder |
The same correlation exists with Safety! How do we measure
the success of a Safety Management Systems?
The most common methods employed by regulators and Government entities
is to simply monitor the “Accident” or “Incident” rate. But, don’t we have the
same problem described in the capital punishment argument? How many “non-accidents”
accidents did our Safety Systems prevent? If we are just measuring the accident
rate then we are simply looking at one side of the data.
I do agree this comparison of capital punishment to SMS is
flawed in many ways. First, in Safety we do have hazards, practices, cultures ,
human factors that we can examine. These are “causes” we directly link to
accidents or incidents. We can eliminate the “Swiss Cheese” holes so to speak.
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| Goal of Safety Systems |
So as we examine the success or failure of a Safety
Management System, how do we measure the result? Many companies use the “Zero
injury” model. But, is zero injuries a result of a successful program or just
luck? It is a difficult task to assign a success metric to a Safety Program. So
what is the conclusion? Do we do nothing…absolutely not. We must use all the
tools available to control hazards and abnormalities that lead to accidents and
incidents.
In SMS we have the tools to examine the reasons behind or
leading up to accidents. Root Cause Analysis helps us to identify the,
(Machines, Materials, Manpower, Methods and Environments), that can contribute
to accidents. These inputs are known as the “Deming Factors.” Wouldn’t be prudent if society can use the
same methods of RCA to examine why murders occur. In that way, we may be able
to at least prevent some murders…..but then again how would we know if it
works?
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