ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the development and significance of modern private security in various countries and its implications for the nature and scope of policing in those societies. It deals with a discussion of some of the problems of defining private security for the purposes of research and analysis and describes the extent that available statistics permit, the size and growth of private security in a number of different jurisdictions. The chapter identifies to be the critical issues to be addressed in responding to private security systems and the systems of justice within which they operate. The modern development of mass private property controlled by vast corporate conglomerates, and so frequently consisting of essentially “public places,” is the critical change that has paved the way for the modern growth and influence of private security. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on the more general implications of private security for the public police and criminal justice systems.
