Some Fundamental Questions on Privatization and Commercialization of Crime Control, With Special Reference to Developments in the Netherlands (From Privatization of Crime Control, P 15-43, 1990 -- See NCJ-130251)

• NCJ Number: 130252
• Author(s): U Rosenthal; B Hoogenboom
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 29 pages
• Corporate Author: Council of Europe
• Sale Source: Council of Europe Publications
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: France
• Note: Presented at the 18th Criminological Research Conference, 1988. Collected Studies in Criminological Research, Vol. 27.

Annotation

Privatization plays on societal notions concerning the relevance of collective arrangements and the role of the State in providing goods and services. The privatization of crime control includes two elements: the privatization of the repressive complex and the commercialization of crime control in the form of the private security industry.

Abstract

The three basic arguments in favor of privatization focus on reinforcing the market economy, increasing government earnings, and reducing bureaucratic overload. This type of debate over the relationship between public and private sectors touches on a society's political culture. The specific discussion of privatization of crime control must consider the role of the welfare state in countries such as the Netherlands and the growth in related welfare crime. Because the repressive complex, including the police, are under budgetary constraints, the goals and functions of policing become the subject of public scrutiny. In this context, commercial policing has become a structural feature of crime control in most Western countries. In the Netherlands, private investigations have been an expanding market; in most cases, they lead to private justice. While privatization of crime control takes the forms of selling off, contracting out, and abandoning tasks, fundamental questions of social control, security, and co-optation remain. 38 references