PRIVATIZING POLICING IN THE EUROPEAN MARKET - SOME ISSUES FOR THEORY,POLICY, AND RESEARCH

This paper examines the growth and significance of private policing, w hich has received considerable attention in North America and the UK b ut relatively little in the rest of Europe. The paper draws upon Europ ean sources to describe the implications of the privatization of polic ing for civil liberties and the expectations that citizenship carries regarding state provision of policing services, and for the developmen t of a market in policing in the post-1993 European Union. It suggests that there is the potential for the emergence of a new 'policing comp lex' and considers how certain developments in sociological theory may illuminate aspects of this trend. It concludes by offering a future E uropean research agenda on this topic and comments on the social polic y implications of a mixed economy of policing that erodes the citizen' s legitimate expectations of equality in protection from crime and inc ivilities.