Policing in the Private Sector; are they Crime Fighters too?

: An Exploration of Financial Investigators in Banking

Abstract

The fundamental purpose of the research undertaking which is reported in this thesis is to explore the pluralisation of policing through the investigative discipline of financial investigation, as it responds to extant criminological threats of organised crime and money laundering. It will conceptualise the role of the financial investigator as truly cross-sectoral, following the enactment of key legislation in England and Wales, and challenge the orthodoxy of the police organisation remaining central to discussions of policing.
It will achieve this by conducting a number of qualitative interviews with financial investigators working across three banks in the private sector in England, to explore what motivates people to choose to police in the private sector; the degree to which they feel able to identify as part of wider sociological and criminological conceptualisations of policing and criminal justice; the way in which they relate to and work with policing partners in other sectors; and the unique occupational cultures that exist within this specific policing role.
This thesis will employ the concepts of antilocution and Public Service Motivation (PSM) to analyse the data and address the significant gaps within the literature around those who police by choosing to conduct research on policing in the private sector; an area which has, to date, received sparse amounts of academic attention. It will present a unique contribution to knowledge around the cross sectoral career paths available within the discipline of financial investigation and, through its choice of subject matter and discussions of terminology, advocate for a conceptualisation of pluralisation where the range of people and organisations involved in policing is recognised as being in a constant state of flux, responding to extant criminological threats, and where those changes are not simply viewed as being in addition to the police.

Date of Award	1 Oct 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Portsmouth
Supervisor	John Fox (Supervisor) & Sarah Charman (Supervisor)