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War, Criminal Justice and the Rebirth of Privatisation

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The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and War

Abstract

This chapter will distinguish between old and new varieties of private-sector involvement in crime control and warfare. The history of the modern nation state will be characterised as a decline of private initiative as the centrality of military and police agencies in nation building and cohesion gathered pace during the nineteenth century. The resurgence of the private sector in these areas will be attributed to the shifting focus of key elements of state policy in post–welfare-state neoliberal regimes towards security and the management of populations. The changing character of political legitimacy in the new national and international regime following the welfare state and the Cold War period parallels the marginalisation of increasing sections of the global population, and the displacement of issues of legitimacy, citizenship and the membership of national communities with those of security. These changes, while not inevitable, nevertheless provide the background of opportunities for the rapid growth of the private sector.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    John Lea

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  1. John Lea
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, UK, LIVERPOOL, United Kingdom

    Ross McGarry

  2. Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, UK, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Sandra Walklate

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Lea, J. (2016). War, Criminal Justice and the Rebirth of Privatisation. In: McGarry, R., Walklate, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43170-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43170-7_2

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