This unit explores policing in its generic sense. A broad range of investigative and control mechanisms, both in the public and private sectors, is examined in terms of curbing crime, criminal tendencies and threats. This unit appraises recent expansionary changes in state-sponsored policing and security organisations. It explores the recent shift from law enforcement to preventative risk management strategies and technologies. Issues such as the emergence of the 'risk society', the privatisation of policing, tensions between surveillance and personal privacy, and estimations of the risk of dangerousness characterising particular offender groups are examined and critiqued. -- Course Website