Insecurity is a broad subject: it covers all aspects of people's exposure to violence, threats and coercion. Many organizations governmental, international or non-governmental record people's insecurity in the form of written reports. The value of the information in these reports can be greatly magnified by applying the Taback-Coupland model.

Insecurity Insight's method centres on collecting and analysing information on patterns of people's insecurity. This involves transforming qualitative reports of incidents of violence into quantitative data in a given context.

The main advantages of using this method are:

• the information generated can be applied to the design of evidence-based policy

• the information can be used to plan and monitor programmes in dangerous contexts

• a basic quantitative summary of the qualitative reports can be easily produced and might highlight important factors affecting people's insecurity

• the data can be used to develop a profile of the pattern and levels of violence, to compare different localities, and to identify changes over time