Reconstructing Policing: Differentiation and Contradiction in Post-War Private and Public Policing (From Privatizing Criminal Justice, P 76-104, 1989, Roger Matthews, ed. -- See NCJ-121524)

• NCJ Number: 121528
• Author(s): N South
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications Ltd
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This analysis of the relationship between the public and private police in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada from World War Two until the early 1980's describes four models that clarify different aspects of this relationship and how it may develop in the future.

Abstract

These models represent various possible views of the relationship and rest on the concepts of compromise, complementarity, competition, and circumvention. The analysis shows that privatization has been developing throughout the postwar period and is not a product of recent governmental and market preoccupation with the privatization of services. The private security sector is unlikely to disappear in the foreseeable future. It is important to recognize that the proposals for further privatization are serious and influential. However, the further privatization of criminal justice system services must be challenged and resisted on the grounds of tradition and legitimacy, legality and accountability, and ethics and morality. A system is also needed to ensure the public regulation and accountability of private arrangements for policing and security. Notes and 75 references.