ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the emergence, or what some have argued is the re-emergence, of private policing. The chapter begins by exploring some of the academic debates surrounding the changing nature of the nation state, in particular the view that the ‘authority’ of it is declining. Using largely the private security industry it considers the main theoretical perspectives that both explain its growth and can be considered as orientations towards private security. These include negative perspectives such as the ‘radical negative’ and ‘conservative negative’, as well as broadly positive perspectives such as the ‘traditional positive’ and ‘nodal positive’.
