Clifford D. Shearing - Governing Security: Explorations of Policing and Justice

'This challenging book by two of the world's leading authorities on policing and private security is a landmark in scholarship and debate on the subject. It argues for a reconceptualisation of the fields of policing and crime control in terms of a broader, comprehensive notion of the governance of security. It is the most wide-ranging and persuasive interpretation to date of contemporary changes in policing. Thought-provoking and informative, it will attract much debate and remain a fundamental reference point for a long time to come.'

Professor Robert Reiner, London School of Economics

Governance has been radically transformed over the past several decades. These transformations have been mirrored in, and often prefigured by, changes in the governance of security the mentalities, institutions, technologies and practices used to promote secure environments. This book traces the nature of these governmental changes by looking at security. It examines a variety of related questions, including:

The authors conclude by bringing together descriptive, explanatory and normative considerations to assess how justice can be conceived within the governance of security. This book will be of interest to students and academics working in the fields of governance and politics, criminology and policing, and justice and security studies.

Les Johnston is a professor of criminology and Research Director at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth.

Clifford Shearing is a professor in the Law Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University and in the School of Government at the University of the Western Cape.

Explorations in policing
and justice

Les Johnston and
Clifford Shearing

First published 2003
by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

Transferred to Digital Printing 2005

2003 Les Johnston and Clifford Shearing

Typeset in Sabon by
BOOK NOW Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Johnston, Les.
Governing security: explorations in policing and justice / Les Johnston and
Clifford Shearing.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Crime preventionPhilosophy. 2. Law enforcementPhilosophy. 3. Security
systems. 4. Police. 5. Criminal justice, Administration of. I. Shearing,
Clifford D., 1942
II. Title.

HV7431 .J643 2003
363.1'001dc21 2002068190

ISBN 0-415-14961-4 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-14962-2 (pbk)

'Am I going to be safe?' 'Are those around me going to be safe?' 'Are the things I value going to be safe?' These are questions that we ask ourselves, implicitly or explicitly, hundreds of times a day. When we can answer them affirmatively we feel at peace and may move forward with a sense of security. This feeling of peace underlies the term security whose derivation may be traced to Latin words meaning without care or, in modern colloquial parlance, carefree. Sometimes that feeling of peace arises because we or others have taken particular initiatives to enhance our safety: women may carry rape alarms when travelling at night; anxious parents may choose to have their offspring vaccinated against certain childhood diseases, or equip them with cell phones when they are out at night; car owners may have sophisticated anti-theft devices fitted to their new vehicles. Yet, none of these initiatives necessarily guarantees a feeling of safety on the part of the person undertaking it, since each may itself give rise to other risks. For example, the anxious parents may have had to balance the benefits of vaccination (safety from measles and mumps) with its potential costs (the slim chance that the child might be damaged by it).

Nowadays, the term security is applied to many different facets of our existence. It is used to refer to our personal, physical safety, as well as to the safety of our belongings from damage or depredation, but it is also used with respect to our emotional, psychological and financial well-being. We refer to collective programmes designed to ensure such well-being as social security or the social safety net, and measures to protect the integrity of the state and its institutions as national security. Conflicts that break out in various parts of the world are often referred to as threats to international peace and security.

Important as security is to us, however, our desire to achieve it has to be balanced against other things that we value, such as liberty, privacy and justice. For example, people often say that they will accept a degree of insecurity rather than turn their homes into armed fortresses in order to ensure their safety. While they might believe that having someone watch over them all the time would enhance their security, most people would regard the resulting loss of privacy as too high a price to pay for achieving that end. Similarly, the various due process requirements that have been built into our criminal justice systems over the centuries reflect the view that the values of justice and liberty are considered to be just as important to us as the value of security. Of course, it is by no means easy to reconcile these different values. Recent controversy surrounding attempts to prosecute General Pinochet for crimes against humanity in Chile, together with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-Apartheid South Africa, indicate the difficulties which may be encountered in trying to balance demands for justice and security. That is not to say that the two are irreconcilable. Later in this book we consider the relationship between security and justice in more detail. We argue that while tensions may exist between the two, they are also mutually interdependent. This means that if authorities want to govern security more effectively they are obliged to pursue justice more diligently.

People rarely have complete control over their own security and, although most of us strive to achieve as much control as possible, not everyone has the same capacity or opportunity to do so. To complicate matters further, security is also affected by external contingencies. Thus, we may feel safe (or unsafe) not because we have implemented (or failed to implement) an action to enhance our security, but because things happen over which we have relatively little control. People may feel more secure after interest rate cuts, landslide election victories, royal weddings or great national sporting victories; and less secure after bouts of galloping inflation, hung parliaments', royal scandals or national sporting disasters. Other factors, may be more closely linked to their local and immediate experience. Thus, peoples security may be affected by their integration or lack of integration into local neighbourhood groups or by their wider involvement in local civil institutions. Though our primary concern in this book is with deliberate (intended) actions undertaken by people in pursuit of security, it is also important to be aware of the wide range of contingencies that may affect their sense of security.