ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some conceptual issues related to changing forms of urban social control and policing with a focus on Italian cities, and in a comparative perspective. It shows the importance, from a theoretical point of view, of analysis of the political and institutional contexts in which the security policies developed and of issues of centralisation/decentralisation. The chapter explains the development of local security policies and changes in urban policing in Italian cities using theoretical insights from studies on local governance of crime, on restructuring of state sovereignty in crime control, and on policing. It shows how in the Italian case, for instance, the restructuring of the sovereign state, the responsibilisation strategies, the features of the infrastructure for local governance, and the shapes of policing and control at the urban level have similarities with broader processes occurring in the Western world, but also differences in shape and time.
