Author: Edited by Tim Newburn (London School of Economics, University of London) and Peter Neyroud (Chief Ex
ISBN No: 1-843922-87-8
Review date: 14/06/2026
No of pages: 384
Publisher: Willan
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
Sorry to quibble, but the nagging worry about this really impressive book - like so many to do with crime - is that it doesn't really grapple with or appreciate the importance of private security.
Yes, there is a page on patrolling – but you do not get the sense that most patrols, today and tomorrow, are not done by police constables, but are by private security officers in shopping centres, along factory and depot fences and so on. You can quibble at some of the topics chosen – does the Gay Police Association really merit a page, the same as the previous entry, on fraud and policing? Or the page on private policing? Or discretion? That makes the point from which so much of private security flows – โGiven limited police resources and the infinite possibilities for law enforcement, decisions have to be made about which laws to enforce and when to avoid recourse to formal police powers.โ Some of the writers have been in Professional Security – such as former West Mercia Police man Alan Beckley, writing on human rights; Chief Supt Rick Naylor, who was at the January meeting of Ex-Police in Commerce; and Prof Gloria Laycock of University College London, the crime science figure. As the editors cannily say in their introduction, the dictionary seeks to meet the needs of people on new courses in criminal justice and police studies. The editors themselves show the increasing links between universities and police forces – an academic, Prof Tim Newburn, and a former Thames Valley chief constable, Peter Neyroud, now chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency, which is of interest as the body taking on (albeit slowly) the lead role in making the Home Office’s national CCTV strategy happen.
Each entry is as the editors say between 500 and 1500 words (that is, one to three pages) so that it’s ideal for the masters degree student who is stuck at the start of an essay and needs something to get going. What better than to reach for this dictionary and quote an authority on the subject? Such as Prof Nick Tilley on problem-oriented policing, and the ‘broken windows’ theory. Each of the 200 or so entries have a list of related entries and other sources, and there’s a bumper (28-page) reading list at the end. Even if you disagree – the page on ‘crime’ for instance – ‘a highly contestable concept’, according to Prof Hazel Croall – it will at least get you thinking. Another quibble, inevitably, is that some topics are left out. Why fingerprints, but not CCTV?
