Retail loss prevention is a set of practices employed by retail companies to preserve profit. Profit preservation is any business activity specifically designed to reduce preventable losses. A preventable loss is any business cost caused by deliberate or inadvertent human actions, colloquially known as "shrinkage". Deliberate human actions that cause loss to a retail company can be theft, fraud, vandalism, waste, abuse, or misconduct. Inadvertent human actions attributable to loss are poorly executed business processes, where employees fail to follow existing policies or procedures - or cases in which business polices and procedures are lacking. Loss prevention is mainly found within the retail sector but also can be found within other business environments.