Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The state and the contemporary decline in violence
AU - Mansley, David Robert
PY - 2014/9/1
Y1 - 2014/9/1
N2 - After a prolonged decline, violent crime in the West rose between the mid-1950s and the mid-1990s, and many commentators predicted that the rise would only keep going. They believed that violent crime was a symptom of a crisis of sovereignty for the state, which was under threat from outsourcing and privatization—a trend also predicted to continue. But as it happens, the privatizing of the police has since been checked by the failure of the private sector to convince as a credible alternative. Seizing the initiative, the state criminal justice system has increased in strength and scope and has reasserted its monopoly in legitimate coercive force. As a result, and confounding all expectations, violent crime fell throughout the 2000s and falls still.
AB - After a prolonged decline, violent crime in the West rose between the mid-1950s and the mid-1990s, and many commentators predicted that the rise would only keep going. They believed that violent crime was a symptom of a crisis of sovereignty for the state, which was under threat from outsourcing and privatization—a trend also predicted to continue. But as it happens, the privatizing of the police has since been checked by the failure of the private sector to convince as a credible alternative. Seizing the initiative, the state criminal justice system has increased in strength and scope and has reasserted its monopoly in legitimate coercive force. As a result, and confounding all expectations, violent crime fell throughout the 2000s and falls still.
U2 - 10.1093/police/pau023
DO - 10.1093/police/pau023
M3 - Journal article
VL - 8
SP - 233
EP - 239
JO - Policing: Journal of Policy and Practice
JF - Policing: Journal of Policy and Practice
SN - 1751-4512
IS - 3
ER -