SELLING SECURITY: THE PRIVATE POLICING OF PUBLIC SPACE
SELLING SECURITY: THE PRIVATE POLICING OF PUBLIC SPACE
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推销安全：公共空间的私人治安
DOI：
10.1093/bjc/azh094
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发表时间：
2004
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
P. Waddington
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Waddington
我怀疑，许多这样的研究专着永远不会被更广泛的读者所阅读。艾莉森·韦克菲尔德（Alison Wakefield）对三个不同“大规模私有财产”地点的私人保安的出色研究就是这样的专着之一。虽然它仍然暴露出其博士起源的一些伤痕——最明显的是在方法论章节中，它表现出过分热切地向读者保证，在方法论上已经不遗余力——但它仍然是一项可靠的研究，有助于增进我们对形式社会控制这一方面的理解。这种敏感的民族志从“保安客户”、“保安公司”和“保安人员”的角度审视私人保安的提供。它展示了对最平凡方面的掌握——例如“客户”或“公司”是否持有保险的重要性——这使读者对她所描述的活动的作者所拥有的理解深度充满信心。我们还欢迎作者承认她的“假设和观点受到了严重挑战”，以及她如何“对安全官员产生了同情心，这些安全官员……在他们的工作实践中，与他们收到的工资和工作条件相比，通常是专业和高效的”（第84页）。她利用这种同理心，有效地挑战了保安人员的一些常见刻板印象。要扭转前任保守党首相的观点，犯罪学家有必要多理解一点，少谴责一点。本研究考察的三个地点包括一个文化中心（“艺术广场”）、一个大型城外购物中心（“码头中心”）和一座设有一般购物和晚间娱乐场所的市中心建筑（“城市购物中心”）。每个问题都提出了自己的安全挑战，韦克菲尔德博士仔细分析了这些挑战的细节。但是，正如她所解释的那样，“这些以及其他可公开访问的大规模私有财产场所的一个共同特征......是那些控制这些财产的人的自主权，可以决定内部私人世界的性质，并塑造现有的独特社会环境”（第105页）。私人保安只是环境塑造的一个组成部分。压倒性的商业需求是吸引理想的客户，这决定了所提供的安全性。举一个小例子：艺术广场和码头中心的保安人员穿着非军国主义制服，而城市购物中心的保安人员则穿着类似于警察的制服。在某种程度上，这反映了前两个中心的目的和客户以及管理层希望使这些中心变得热情和舒适的愿望。相比之下，城市购物中心迎合的顾客较少，犯罪率较高，而且到了晚上还受到夜间经济破坏的困扰。部分是出于设计，但也是默认情况下，其安全人员采取了更加“专制”的外观。作者对这些特征如何演变以及如何在日常安全工作中表现出来的分析令人着迷且富有启发性。然而，这项研究的真正价值在于它激发了围绕新兴私人保安行业的争论，特别是为韦克菲尔德博士的案例研究中所代表的那种为“大众私有财产”提供服务的行业。这些争论中最重要的是私人保安和警察之间的区别（如果有的话）。这在本书的第一部分中作为一个普遍问题进行了探讨，并在整个案例研究中或隐或显地重复出现。学术界扩展……已成为一种时尚。
REVIEWS are, I suspect, many such research monographs that would never be available to a wider audience. One such monograph is Alison Wakefield's excellent study of private security in three ferent sites of'mass private property'. Whilst it still bares some of the scars of its docto origins—most notably in the methodology chapter that displays an over-eagerness to re sure the reader that no methodological stone has been left unturned—it is nonetheless solid piece of research that helps to advance our understanding of this aspect of form social control. This sensitive ethnography examines the provision of private security from the perspective of the'security client','security company'and'security officer'. It displays a grasp of the most mundane aspects—such as the importance of whether the'client'or'company'holds the insurance cover—that gives the reader confidence in the depth of understanding possessed by the author of the activities she describes. It is also welcome to find the author admitting how her'assumptions and views [were] seriously challenged'and how she came to develop'an empathy towards the security officers who... were generally professional and efficient in their work practices in relation to the wages they received and the conditions in which they worked'(p. 84). She uses this empathy to good effect in challenging some of the common stereotypes of security personnel. To reverse the view of a previous Conservative Prime Minister, it is necessary for criminologists to understand a little more and condemn a little less. The three sites examined in this research comprised a cultural centre ('Arts Plaza'), a large out-of-town shopping complex ('Quayside Centre'), and a town centre building housing general shopping and evening entertainment ('City Mall'). Each posed its own security chal lenges and Dr Wakefield analyses these with careful attention to detail. But, as she explains,'What remains a common feature of these and other publicly accessible sites of mass private property... is the autonomy of those who control such properties to determine the nature of the private worlds within, and to shape the distinctive social environments that existed'(p. 105). Private security was just one component in that fashioning of an environment. The overwhelming commercial imperative is to attract desirable clientele and this shapes the kind of security that is provided. Consider just one small illustration: the security staff at the Arts Plaza and Quayside Centre wore non-militaristic uniforms, whereas those at the City Mall wore a uniform akin to that of the police. In part, this reflected the purpose and clientele of the first two centres and the desire of management to make these respective centres welcoming and comfortable. The City Mall, by contrast, catered to a less' select'cli entele, suffered more crime and at night was plagued by all the ravages of the nighttime economy. Partly by design, but also by default, its security staff had adopted a more'author itarian'appearance. The author's analysis of how such characteristics evolved and were expressed in the daily routines of security work proves fascinating and revealing. However, the real value of this research lies in the stimulus that it gives to the debates that surround the burgeoning private security industry, especially that which services the'mass private property'of the kind represented in Dr Wakefield's case studies. Foremost amongst these debates is the distinction (if there is one) between private security and the police. This is explored both as a general issue in the first part of the book and recurs throughout the case studies, implicitly as well as explicitly. It has become fashionable for academics to extend the …