Read about our members’ new publication: ‘Private Security’s Accountabilities within Polycentric Assemblages’ by Julie Berg and Clifford Shearing
This article reflects on the ways which private security can be, and is, held responsible and accountable to the public (and other security providers) in formalised, polycentric, or nodal assemblages.
Drawing on empirical research conducted on plural policing partnerships, the article will show that private security is influenced by market forces, but that this is part of an interwoven, layered, formal-informal system of accountabilities – most of which are bottom-up and relational, rather than top-down and legislated. In fact, drawing on the work of John Braithwaite, the article shows that horizontal or circular forms of accountability (or accountabilities) play a large role in aligning the private sector to the public interest or common good within pluralised environments.
Berg, J. and C. Shearing (2020) 'Private Security’s Accountabilities within Polycentric Assemblages’, International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice DOI: 10.1080/01924036.2020.1788959
