Private Policing

• NCJ Number: 200398
• Author(s): Mark Button
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 172 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This book traces the development of various types of private policing in the United Kingdom, along with the history of the British effort to regulate the private security industry; comparisons are made with developments elsewhere in the Western world.

Abstract

The first chapter explores the meaning of "private policing," examines the wide range of organizations involved in policing, and explains new analytical tools to help understand it; various classifications of policing are assessed to develop a taxonomy that will facilitate a more systematic analysis of policing. Chapter 2 explores the debate about the changing nature of the state, the fragmentation of policing, and the emergence of a "risk society." Reasons for the recent increase in the size of the private-policing industry are explored. Four chapters survey the various categories of policing identified in the taxonomy of policing: the public police and the ways they have been increasingly subjected to privatization; central and decentralized public policing bodies; specialized police organizations; and non-private security private policing bodies (characteristics of "privateness," but cannot be classified as private security organizations). Chapter 7 explores the vast range of individuals and organizations voluntarily involved in policing. This chapter makes use of Johnston's (1992a) distinction between responsible and autonomous citizenship to explore voluntary forms of policing supported by the state and "vigilante" forms of policing that do not have the backing of the state. Chapter 8 reviews the extensive and growing literature on the private security industry to illustrate the expanding role this industry plays in policing. The ninth chapter examines police patrol in an effort to explain the "pluralization" of policing. It shows how one of the most significant and symbolic functions undertaken by the public police (patrolling the streets) has been impacted by private, voluntary, and municipal initiatives. The next chapter assesses the regulatory structure that governs private security and the limited means by which employees and firms are held accountable. The concluding chapter focuses on the theoretical, policy, and research implications of the emerging forms of policing. Chapter tables, 275 references, and a subject index