Corporate Security and Private Settlement: An Informal Economy of Justice

Abstract

What is the relationship between corporate security, its services to private sector companies or to public sectors agencies, and criminality‘ On the basis of interviews carried out primarily in the Netherlands with senior figures in corporate security and with public prosecutors, the reasons for clients to prefer a private settlement instead of public action through the criminal justice system are discussed: secrecy, discretion, legal flexibility and control. However, private settlement may also facilitate criminal learning and displacement. The authors explore this possibility and, extending the work of James Williams, ask why the public sector allows corporate security such autonomy. Further work is needed on corporate security’s ability to move across the boundaries of public and private multiple legal orders, and on the implications for crime prevention.

Keywords: corporate security, employee crime, private settlement, criminal displacement and facilitation, legal orders