NCJ Number
105888
Editor(s)
C D Shearing,
P C Stenning
Date Published
1987
Length
327 pages
Annotation
These 13 essays examine the conceptual basis and history of private policing and its current uses in the United States and other countries.
Abstract
A discussion of the concept of privacy considers its political, legal, and sociocultural definitions and the ways that the law and public and private police both legitimate and protect against intrusion. The relationship between private policing and private justice as a whole is examined in terms of its role in the workplace. Two historical reviews consider the emergence of modern public police forces during the 18th and 19th centuries in England and the use of private police by the Ford Motor Company during the 1930's and 1940's. Papers on the role of citizens' organizations in informal policing consider community policing in North American cities and in revolutionary Nicaragua. Three papers examine the cooperation and competition that exists between public and private police in preventing and investigating various kinds of crime. Further papers focus on specific types and aspects of private policing: the investigation of insurance fraud related to auto theft, the growing use of administrative actions rather than criminal prosecution to control business crime, efforts to ensure that nuclear installations in Great Britain comply with regulations, and the ways in which costumed characters at Disney World maintain control and order in a pleasant and firm manner. Introductory overview and chapter notes and references.