A clumsy dance: the political economy of American police and policing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to incorporate historical theories of political economy as means better to clarify and classify contemporary state police and private policing practices. Design/methodology/approach A diverse historical investigation of largely, non‐traditional public police history was conducted by utilizing a selective variety of social, political, and economic sources. Findings The paper finds that several theoretical features of eighteenth and nineteenth century Marxian, classical, and neoclassical political economy have contributed in defining the origins of contemporary American public police and private policing practices. Born from these perspectives, public goods theories frameworks, in conjunction with Wilson's police officer job function typologies inVarieties of Police Behavior,more clearly illustrate the current political and economically defined state supported police relative to private market arrangements. Research limitations/implications This research describes the positioning of this mixed economy in theoretical fashion, but does not provide contemporary private sector market growths or publicly supplied police trends that are a suitable next step for further research. Practical implications The public “monopoly” of state supported police is largely rejected. More interdisciplinary research approaches should be pursued in the twenty‐first century that better reflect the American political and economic realities of public and private forms of policing. Originality/value This paper is highly original when considering the paucity of theory utilized in describing simultaneous state and private policing scenarios.