Privatization and Capitalist Development: The Case of the Private Police

Spitzer, Steven; Scull, Andrew

doi:10.2307/800464

Cited by 132 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Firms with specific, spatially defined property interests subject to the problems of anonymity and physical mobility—the railroads in particular—hired the bulk of deputies. Although these firms were usually less concerned with public drinking or disorder than political elites, the erosion of the social structural foundations of delegation nevertheless made it increasingly difficult for them to rely on an amateur constabulary (Spitzer and Scull 1977, 21–22). Hiring specials was simply a way of using traditional institutions to address a growing threat.…”

Section: Special Deputization and The Emergence Of The Public And Primentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The private detective industry built on the traditional republican constable system in two ways. First, it relied on contracts and fee schedules (Spitzer and Scull 1977, 19–21). This meant that the kinds of services provided by private security were limited in scope and focused only on particular problems confronted by clients.…”

Section: Special Deputization and The Emergence Of The Public And Primentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Coevolution of Public and Private Security in Nineteenth-Century Chicago

Obert¹

2018

Law soc. inq.

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The coevolution of private detective agencies and municipal police bureaucracies in mid-nineteenth-century Chicago arose from the breakdown of an older system in which the provision of law enforcement was delegated to local communities. The growth of anonymity and the presence of strangers in a city undergoing massive changes in transportation undermined this delegative system and created the perception of new public security threats. These threats were compounded by the mobilization of ethnicity in partisan politics. To address these new concerns, political and e conomic elites did not innovate, but turned to traditional practices like special deputization. The use of deputization allowed some law officers to sell their services as entrepreneurs to private firms, while also paving the way for a new bureaucratic police department. Networks of security providers locked in this transformation and made public and private policing alike a permanent feature of the city's institutional landscape.

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Section: Special Deputization and The Emergence Of The Public And Primentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Special Deputization and The Emergence Of The Public And Primentioning

confidence: 99%

The Coevolution of Public and Private Security in Nineteenth-Century Chicago

Obert¹

2018

Law soc. inq.

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“…Spitzer and Scull’s (1977) classic structural Marxist account relates the development of private policing in Anglo-American societies to transformations in capitalist economic organization and systems. In their view, private security reflects priorities of the dominant class at specific periods of capitalist development.…”

Section: Dominant Explanations Of Private Security Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their view, private security reflects priorities of the dominant class at specific periods of capitalist development. The modern private security industry, they argue, emerges from the ‘human problems’ engendered in the transition from industrial to corporate capitalism, ‘coupled with the deepening fiscal crisis of the state […] and the extension of corporate hegemony’ (Spitzer and Scull, 1977: 27). They theorize that the dramatic expansion in both size and function of US policing for profit in the 1960s was fuelled by the security demands of big business, which under-resourced public authorities could not meet.…”

Section: Dominant Explanations Of Private Security Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints on the growth of private policing: A comparative international analysis

Singh

Light

2017

Theoretical Criminology

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While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialized democracies, less is known about why the industry does not develop uniformly around the world. We propose some hypotheses about constraints on private security growth in other settings, based on three comparative case studies in authoritarian states (Russia and Georgia), developing countries (Guyana and Trinidad) and non-‘Anglosphere’ industrialized democracies (continental Europe). In authoritarian states, private policing is more politically sensitive than in democratic states, sometimes resulting in more draconian restrictions on it. In developing societies, despite widespread fear of crime, potential consumers sometimes favour in-house measures over private security firms and electronic devices. In developed democracies, variation in private security growth reflects regulatory, institutional and ideological differences between the Anglosphere and continental Europe. We conclude that constraints on the private security industry’s growth potential are more significant than many scholars have acknowledged.

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“…One hypothesis that has been advanced to account for the decision processes of private security persons is that their decisions are shaped by a concern to maximize company profit (Curtis, 1971; Jeffries, 1977; Spitzer and Scull, 1977; Shearing et al, 1980). This concern, it may be argued, finds its expression in the tendency for private security persons to act 80 as to minimize the company's losses.…”

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confidence: 99%

An Analysis of the Prosecution of Shoplifters

Feuerverger

Shearing

1982

Criminology

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This article examines the decisions to prosecute shoplifters by Canadian retail investigators. A hypothetical case method that permits a statistical simulation of an experimental design is used. The findings support recent research which indicates that both the value of the item and the age of the suspect are the most important predictors of investigators' decisions to prosecute. In addition, our results identify admission of the offense and the suspect's appearance as important predictors of these decisions. In general, characteristics of the offense rather than of the offender are found to be most important factors in the decision‐making process. Further, the results support the argument that investigators' decisions tend to maximize company profit. How‐ever, profit maximization is revealed as an unintended conse‐quence of these decisions.

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Privatization and Capitalist Development: The Case of the Private Police

Cited by 132 publications

References 7 publications

The Coevolution of Public and Private Security in Nineteenth-Century Chicago

The Coevolution of Public and Private Security in Nineteenth-Century Chicago

Constraints on the growth of private policing: A comparative international analysis

An Analysis of the Prosecution of Shoplifters

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