Epilogue: Conversations with Clifford Shearing (II)

Abstract

When I first started researching private policing in 1986/1987, hardly any literature was available. Much of the early writings on private security were completed by Clifford Shearing and Philip Stenning. As true pioneers, they ventured outside the criminal justice system, and I read and used much of their work compiled in the 1980s. They were a constant inspiration. Jan van Dijk, then director of the scientific research department of the Ministry of Justice I worked for at the time, once made a cynical remark about the number of Shearing and Stenning references I made. But it was the same Jan van Dijk who made it possible for me to cross the Atlantic to deliver my first-ever speech: a presentation to be held in 1987 at an academic conference in Montreal. After my speech, someone came up to me and introduced himself: Philip Stenning. I met Clifford Shearing briefly in 2006 at a Mannheim seminar organised by the London School of Economics.