Alison Wakefield - Security and Crime

Converging Perspectives on a Complex World

For Danielle and Sophie

Alison Wakefield is Professor of Criminology and Security Studies and Co-Director of the Cybersecurity and Criminology Centre at the University of West London. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute and was Chair of the Security Institute, the UK's largest member association for security professionals, from 2018 to 2020.

Alison's recent honours and awards include ranking third in the thought leadership category of IFSEC Global's Top Influencers in Security and Fire for 2020, featuring in IT Security Guru's Most Inspiring Women in Cyber 2020 and SC Media UK's 50 Women of Influence in Cyber Security 2019, earning an Emerald Outstanding Paper 2018 award for the co-authored paper Confronting the fraud bottleneck in the Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, and receiving the Association of Security Consultants Imbert Prize 2017 for her contribution to the security profession.

Her other publications include The Sage Dictionary of Policing (Sage, 2009, edited with Jenny Fleming), Selling Security: The Private Policing of Public Space (Willan Publishing, 2003) and Ethical and Social Perspectives on Situational Crime Prevention (Hart Publishing, 2000, edited with Andrew von Hirsch and David Garland).

In the course of writing this book I have benefitted from the support and encouragement of many people. I am grateful to family members and friends for putting up with my long disappearances, including colleagues at the University of West London and the Security Institute who allowed me space for intense periods of writing. I would particularly like to thank the numerous people who spared time to offer their insights on aspects of the book, or introduced me to new issues and ideas, including Andrea Birdsall, Andrew Glazzard, David Brooks, Donna Peacock, Hamish Cameron, James Banks, Jenny Fleming, Karim Murji, Keith Ditcham, Mahesh Nalla, Martin Gill, Mike Gips, Nigel Rourke, Paul Martin, Peter Squires, Phil Wane, Robert Hall and Toby Harris. I am grateful to Yvonne Jewkes for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the excellent Key Approaches to Criminology book series, and Paula Clarke Bain for her most comprehensive and thorough index. Finally, I am hugely appreciative to the team at Sage for their faith in me and considerable help throughout the writing process, including Caroline Porter, Eve Williams, John Nightingale, Ozlem Merakli, Jessica Masih and especially Natalie Aguilera, whose encouragement, patience and guidance played no small part in getting me to the finish line.