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A History of Private Policing in the United States

Author

Miller, Wilbur R.

Title

A History of Private Policing in the United States.

Format

Online Resource Book

Published

London : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2018.

Description

1 online resource (249 pages).

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474204941?locatt=label:secondary_bloomsburyCollections <Ebook Library> http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5541125

Uniform series

History of crime, deviance and punishment series.

Contents

Cover; Contents; List of Figures; Preface; 1 Authority in America: Private Policing and the Diffusion of State Power; The context of private policing; The American state and private policing; Political ideology and private policing; 2 Self-defense and the "Armed Citizen"; Development of an American definition of self-defense; "No duty to retreat" and the right to bear arms; Stand your ground; More guns; Armed paramilitary self-defense and protection groups; 3 Varieties of Vigilantism; Legitimation of vigilantism; Classic vigilantism; "Whitecappers" or night riders; The first Ku Klux Klan.

Contents note

Lynch mobsThe second Ku Klux Klan; Vigilance and vigilantism during the First World War; The third Klux Klan; 4 Security Guards and Patrols; Early private security in the United States; New York's Central Park police; The ASPCA; Anti-horse Thief Associations; Slave patrols; Guards and patrols today; Private patrols; Citizen patrols; Private guards and patrols in Britain and France; Paramilitary patrols; Public police, private clients; Legal issues of moonlighting; Retail store policing; Shopping mall policing; Guarding the gates; Controlling the streets: Business improvement districts.

Bodyguards and bouncersTrains and planes: Railroad and airport police; Problems and criticisms of private security; 5 Private Detectives; Origins of private detectives; Two famous detectives' careers; Rank and file detectives; Relations with the police and other public officials; Urban anti-vice reformers and private detectives; Public and private red hunters; Private detectives today; Bounty hunters; Private national security; 6 Policing Labor; Industrial espionage; Guards for strikebreakers; The public-private connection; "Industrial munitions": Private arming of the police.

The Pennsylvania Coal and Iron PoliceCompany police; Return of the guards; Goons, sluggers, strikebreakers for rent; 7 Prisoners for Profit; Prison industries; Convict lease; Corrections corporations; 8 What Should Be the Relation between the State and Private Policing?; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index.

Summary

"Private law enforcement and order maintenance have usually been seen as working against or outside of state authority. A History of Private Policing in the United States surveys private policing since the 1850s to the present, arguing that private agencies have often served as a major component of authority in America as an auxiliary of the state. Wilbur R. Miller defines private policing broadly to include self-defense, stand your ground laws, and vigilantism, as well as private detectives, security guards and patrols from gated community security to the Guardian Angels. He also covers the role of detective agencies in controlling labor organizing through spies, guards and strikebreakers. A History of Private Policing in the United States is an overview integrating various components of private policing to place its history in the context of the development of the American state."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Subject headings

Police, Private--United States. Vigilance committees--United States. Crime prevention--Citizen participation. Self-defense. Vigilantes--United States. Private investigators--United States.

ISBN

9781472534835 1472534832 9781472527400 1472527402 1472533364 9781472533364