Introduction to Security (eBook)

Robert Fischer, Edward Halibozek, David Walters (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2012 | 9. Auflage
544 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-12-385058-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Introduction to Security has been the leading text on private security for over thirty years. Celebrated for its balanced and professional approach, this new edition gives future security professionals a broad, solid base that prepares them to serve in a variety of positions. Security is a diverse and rapidly growing field that is immune to outsourcing. The author team as well as an outstanding group of subject-matter experts combine their knowledge and experience with a full package of materials geared to experiential learning. As a recommended title for security certifications, and an information source for the military, this is an essential reference for all security professionals. This timely revision expands on key topics and adds new material on important issues in the 21st century environment such as the importance of communication skills; the value of education; internet-related security risks; changing business paradigms; and brand protection. - New sections on terrorism and emerging security threats like cybercrime and piracy - Top industry professionals from aerospace and computer firms join instructors from large academic programs as co-authors and contributors - Expanded ancillaries for both instructors and students, including interactive web-based video and case studies

Robert Fischer is President of Assets Protection Associates, Inc., a security consulting firm established in 1986. He earned his Ph.D. in education administration from Southern Illinois University in 1981. Dr. Fischer has served as a consultant to many organizations, including publishers, private security firms, retailers, and school districts. Dr. Fischer is a member of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the American Society for industrial Security, The Academy if Security Educators and Trainers, and the International Police Association. He recently retired from his positions as the Director of Illinois Law Enforcement Executive Institute, a project of the Illinois Law Enforcement and Standards Board, and as a professor of law enforcement and justice administration at Western Illinois University.

Textauszug

1

Origins and Development of 21st Century Security

Objectives

The study of this chapter will enable you to:

1. Outline the historical development of security in America.

2. Discuss changing crime trends over the past decades.

3. Understand the role of professional associations/organizations in the development of a professional security industry.

4. Consider the changing role of security in our 21st century world.

Introduction

Security implies a stable, relatively predictable environment in which an individual or group may pursue its ends without disruption or harm and without fear of disturbance or injury. The concept of security in an organizational sense has evolved gradually throughout the history of Western civilization, shaped by a wide variety of institutional and cultural patterns.

In examining the origins and development of security, it should be noted that security holds a mirror up, not to nature, but to society and its institutions. Thus in medieval England there were programs to clear brush and other concealment on either side of the king’s roads as a precaution against robbers, and to protect citizens from night thieves there were night watchmen. In the United States in modern times, these rudimentary security measures find their counterparts in the cleared areas adjoining perimeter fences and buildings, in security patrols, and in intrusion alarms. Throughout history it is possible to trace the emerging concept of security as a response to, and a reflection of, a changing society, mirroring both its social structure and its economic conditions, its perception of law and crime, and its morality. Thus, security remains a field of both tradition and dramatic change. The introduction of high-tech systems and computers has changed the nature of the job of the 21st century security professional. Security today must be directed toward modern problems including computer crime and world terrorism, yet we cannot forget the basic foundations on which the field has developed.

Security in England

The development of systems of protection (security) and law enforcement in England began to come with greater rapidity and sophistication beginning in the 14th through the 18th centuries. Seeds for this development were planted during the social revolution that heralded the end of the remaining elements of the feudal structure in the latter half of the 13th century.

Security was one thing in a largely rural society controlled by kings and feudal barons; it was another thing entirely in a world swept by enormous changes. The voyages of exploration, which opened new markets and trade routes, created a new and increasingly important merchant class whose activities came to dominate the port cities and trading centers. Concurrently, acts of enclosure and consolidation drove displaced small tenants off the land, and they migrated to the cities in great numbers.

By 1700 the social patterns of the Middle Ages were breaking down. Increased urbanization of the population had created conditions of considerable hardship. Poverty and crime increased rapidly. No public law enforcement agencies existed that could restrain the mounting wave of crime and violence, and no agencies existed that could alleviate the causes of the problem.

Different kinds of police agencies were privately formed. Individual merchants hired men to guard their property. Merchant associations also created the merchant police to guard shops and warehouses. Night watchmen were employed to make their rounds. Agents were engaged to recover stolen property, and the people of various parishes into which the major cities were divided hired parochial police.

Attention then turned to the reaffirmation of laws to protect the common good. Although the Court of Star Chamber, which gave the English monarchy all control over decisions of law, had been abolished in 1641, its practices were not officially proscribed until 1689 when Parliament agreed to crown William and Mary if they would reaffirm the ancient rights and privileges of the people. They agreed, and Parliament ratified the Bill of Rights, which for all time limited the power of the king as well as affirming and protecting the inalienable rights of the individual.

The 18th Century

By the 18th century, it is possible to discern both the shape of efforts toward communal security and the kinds of problems that would continue to plague an increasingly urban society into modern times.

In 1737, for instance, a new aspect of individual rights came to be acknowledged: For the first time, tax revenues were used for the payment of a night watch. This was a significant development in security practice because it was a precedent-setting step that established for the first time the use of tax revenues for common security purposes.

Eight years later, Parliament authorized a special committee to study security problems. The study resulted in a program employing various existing private security forces to extend the scope of their protection. The resulting heterogeneous group, however, was too much at odds. It proved ineffective in providing any satisfactory level of protection.

In 1748 Henry Fielding, magistrate and author (most notably of the unforgettable Tom Jones), proposed a permanent, professional, and adequately paid security force. His invaluable contributions included a foot patrol to make the streets safe, a mounted patrol for the highways, the famous “Bow Street Amateur Volunteer Force” of special investigators, and police courts. Fielding is credited with conceiving the idea of preventing crime instead of seeking to control it.

The Impact of Industrial Expansion

The Industrial Revolution began to gather momentum in the latter half of the 18th century. Like the migrations off the land 200 years earlier, people again flocked to the cities—not pushed this time, as they had been earlier, by enclosure and dispossession, but rather lured by promises of work and wages.

The already crowded cities were choked with this new influx of wealth seekers. What they found were long hours, crippling work, and miserly wages. Family life, heretofore the root of all stability, was virtually destroyed in this environment. Thievery, crimes of violence, and juvenile delinquency were the order of the day. All the ills of such a structure, as we see in analogous situations today, overtook the emerging industrial centers.

Little was done to alleviate the growing problems. Indeed the prevailing philosophy of the time argued against doing anything. In this new age in which statements of laissez-faire were generally accepted, industrial centers became the spawning grounds for crimes of all kinds. At one time, counterfeiting was so common that it was estimated that more counterfeit than government-issue money was in circulation. More than 50 false mints were found in London alone.

The backlash to such a high crime rate was inevitable and predictable. Penalties were increased to deter potential criminals. At one time, more than 150 capital offenses existed, ranging from picking pockets to serious crimes of violence. Yet no visible decline in crime resulted. It was a “society that lacked any effective means of enforcing the criminal laws in general. A Draconian code of penalties that proscribed the death penalty for a host of crimes failed to balance the absence of efficient enforcement machinery.”1

Private citizens resorted to carrying arms for protection, and they continued to band together to hire special police to protect their homes and businesses.

For a more detailed consideration of the development of security and policing in England see an introductory text on law enforcement.

Security in the United States

Security practices in the early days of colonial America followed the patterns that colonists had been familiar with in England. The need for mutual protection in a new and alien land drew them together in groups much like those of earlier centuries.

As the settlers moved west in Massachusetts, along the Mohawk Valley in New York, and into central Pennsylvania and Virginia, the need for protection against hostile Indians and other colonists—French and Spanish—was their principal security interest. Settlements generally consisted of a central fort or stockade surrounded by the farms of the inhabitants. If hostilities threatened, an alarm was sounded and the members of the community left their homes for the protection of the fort, where all able-bodied persons were involved in its defense. In such circumstances, a semi-military flavor often characterized security measures, which included guard posts and occasional patrols.

Protection of people and property in established towns again followed English traditions. Sheriffs were elected as chief security officers in colonial Virginia and Georgia; constables were appointed in New England. Watchmen were hired to patrol the streets at night. As Private Security: Report of the Task Force on Private Security notes, “These watchmen remained familiar figures and constituted the primary security measures until the establishment of full-time police forces in the mid-1800’s.”2

Such watchmen, it should be pointed out, were without training, had no legal authority, were either volunteer or else paid a pittance, and were generally held in low regard— circumstances that bear a remarkable similarity to observations in the RAND report on private security in...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.11.2012
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht ► Kriminologie
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Wirtschaftsrecht ► Bank- und Kapitalmarktrecht
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Wirtschaftsinformatik
• ISBN-10: 0-12-385058-4 / 0123850584
• ISBN-13: 978-0-12-385058-4 / 9780123850584