ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the different forms of privatisation affecting the criminal justice system in Scotland and in so doing illustrates that the distinctions between ‘public’ and ‘private’ are becoming increasingly blurred. Despite ‘private’ and ‘privatisation’ being the political buzz-words of the 1980s and 1990s, the use of these terms in the context of policing and crime control might still seem controversial. For Scotland’s public police, two forms of privatisation have become increasingly important in the 1990s. First, the police, like other public services, have had to respond to central government’s agenda of introducing the ‘social market’ into the public sector; second, the police, again like other public services, have had to embrace the government’s active citizenship strategy which encourages private individuals to take responsibility for certain aspects of service provision. Active citizenship takes a variety of forms in the criminal justice system but amongst the most significant are Neighbourhood Watch schemes and the Special Constabulary.
