NCJ Number
136203
Date Published
1991
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This essay identifies significant issues in scholarly thinking on policing and the texts that address them in useful and interesting ways.
Abstract
The authors distinguish between forms of policing according to the various orders they protect. Regular police (public police) respond to threats to order guaranteed by government; political policing responds to threats to government as a guarantor of order; and private police respond to threats to private order as defined by particular property owners. Most research has examined regular policing, particularly police decisionmaking. The focus has been on police officer discretion, along with the influence of police officer culture, police management, courts, the law, and various publics. This research contributes to debates about police accountability. The research has identified the limitations to regular policing that have spawned alternative means of protection, notably the use of private police to protect profit and prevent loss for the employers of the private police. Private policing can involve multinational corporations that cut across national-State jurisdictions. This poses new problems for traditional political hierarchies and their means of holding police accountable. 56-item annotated reading list.