Reflections on the evoeving concept of 'private policing'

Once popular 'state-centred' political frameworks, while declining in popularity on many normative agendas, nevertheless continue to guide how we think about and examine 'policing'. Early studies into the 'private policing' phenomenon have thereby focused upon the formal paid private security sector, a set of agencies which do not depart too radically in appearance from traditional public police services. More recent empirical studies have yielded data inconsistent with the established conceptual frameworks. Theorists have been assembling these data into alternate ways of thinking about 'collective life', which may have profound implications for the ways in which to choose to govern in the future. Further research addressing developments in 'networked nodal governance' may be suggestive of progressive alternatives. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.