The Substitutability and Complementarity of Private Security with Public Police: The Case of Violence Against Women and Girls in the Rail Network of the United Kingdom

The stack of evidence on ways in which private and public police can work collaboratively is mounting. From what we know, when the two spheres take a co-operative approach, effective crime control practices ensue. The use of private security in lieu of ‘classic’ policing roles is not just a matter of desirable reduced public expenditure; security guards, place managers, and many other non-state actors are often as effective, if not more, in crime management and security services than the police. We take the case of violence against women and girls (VAWG), specifically in the public transportation environment, to illustrate the substitutability and complementarity of private security with public police. In this chapter, we observe three ‘units of analysis’: crime locations, offenders, and victims. Examination of all three units reinforces the view that private and public police should not work in silos. ‘VAWG Hotspots’ can be identified by police records and then patrolled by security guards, in order to prevent VAWG; known and potentially recidivist VAWG offenders can be managed by both police and private security, using a focused deterrence approach; and VAWG victims can be given additional care through a ‘call back’ policy, provided conjunctly by the two systems. I conclude with a series of policy recommendations for applying these evidence-based approaches to deal with VAWG, with the British Transport Police and the United Kingdom’s train operating companies in mind, as they are best equipped to carry out these policies.