The Politics of Private Security Regulation, Reform and Re-Legitimation [Hardcover]

This is the first in-depth conceptual and empirical analysis of the political issues, processes and themes associated with private security provision and its growth in the postwar era, examining why private security has become so prominent, what its relationship to the state is and how it can be controlled.PART I: THEORY AND CONTEXT Introduction Structure, Agency and Security PART II: THE POLITICS OF PRIVATE SECURITY IN BRITAIN Emerging Agendas (1945-59) The Regulation Debate (1960-69) Parliamentary Pressure (1969-79) The Neoliberal Experiments (1979-1996) New Labour, New Legitimacy (1997-2001) The Era of Regulation (2001-2010) PART III: COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS Towards a New Social-Scientific Understanding Bibliography

Shortlisted for the British Society of Criminology Book Prize 2011

'White should be congratulated on producing a fine book. It is meticulously researched, conceptually sophisticated, and crisply written. He has opened a rich field of enquiry that offers much promise to policy-makers and academics alike who wish to understand the ways in which politics and economics, state and market, have enfolded each other in mutually beneficial ways to structure the contemporary landscape of security provision.'

- Stuart Lister, University of Leeds, UK, Policing

'The Politics of Private Security is a rich and well-argued account of the 'deeply political' processes that shape the contours and dynamics of the private security industry. The political economy approach White develops sheds genuinely new light upon the contemporary history of private security in Britain and he outlines in conclusion how this approach may guide future research in other jurisdictions.'

- Professor Ian Loader, University of Oxford, UK, Criminology and Criminal Justice

'The Politics of Private Security is a well-argued, finely detailed and fascinating historical account that will be of greatl£Y