Privatising Justice takes a broad historical view of the role of the private sector in the British state, from private policing and mercenaries in the eighteenth century to the modern rise of the private security industry in armed conflict, policing and the penal system. 

The development of the welfare state is seen as central to the decline of what the authors call 'old privatisation'. Its succession by neoliberalism has created the ground for the resurgence of the private sector. The growth of private military, policing and penal systems is located within the broader global changes brought about by neoliberalism and the dystopian future that it portends.

The book is a powerful petition for the reversal of the increasing privatization of the state and the neoliberalism that underlies it.

John Lea is honorary professor in criminology at the University of Leicester. He is the author of several books, including What Is To Be Done About Law and Order? (Pluto, 1993) and Crime and Modernity (Sage, 2002). Wendy Fitzgibbon is a Reader in Criminology at the University of Leicester. She previously worked as a probation officer. She is the author of Pre-emptive Criminalisation: Risk Control And Alternative Futures (NAPO 2004) and Probation and Social Work on Trial (Palgrave, 2011).

— Sandra Walklate, author of 'Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice'

— Shadd Maruna, author of 'Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives'

— Dean Wilson, co-author of 'Pre-crime: Pre-emption, Precaution and the Future'

— Lawrence Burke, co-author of 'Reimagining Rehabilitation Beyond the Individual'