Institute of Criminal Justice Studies

Profile

B.A. (Hull), M.Phil Ph.D (Cambridge), FSyI

Alison’s research interests are in policing and security, with a particular emphasis on the corporate and commercial security sectors and the boundaries of public and private policing. Her current projects focus on the international security industry from the perspective of heads of commercial security companies and corporate security departments, and community driven security initiatives.

Among Alison’s publications, she has authored Selling Security: The Private Policing of Public Space (Willan Publishing, 2003), which was shortlisted for the British Society of Criminology Book Prize 2003; and she is editor of The Sage Dictionary of Policing with Jenny Fleming (Sage, 2009) and Ethical and Social Perspectives on Situational Crime Prevention with Andrew von Hirsch and David Garland (Hart Publishing, 2000). Alison is currently working on a textbook for Sage titled Security and Crime.

Prior to joining the University of Portsmouth in January 2010, Alison taught at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. She has previously lectured at City University London and the University of Leicester, and worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a management consultant. Alison serves on the editorial boards of Security Journal and Police Practice and Research.

Expertise

• Policing
• Corporate security
• Commercial security

Teaching

Alison leads or contributes to a number of distance learning and campus-based units, primarily in the areas of security, risk management and policing.

Selected publications

• Wakefield, A. (forthcoming 2011) Security and Crime, Sage: London.
• Wakefield, A., Cole, B. and Das, D. (eds) (forthcoming 2011) Policing Neoliberal Societies: Governing Security in the Global Economy, New York: CRC Press.
• Wakefield, A. (forthcoming 2010) ‘Doing a criminological literature review’ in P. Davies, P. Francis and V. Jupp (eds.) Doing Criminological Research (2nd ed.), London: Sage.
• Wakefield, A. and Fleming, J. (eds) (2009) The Sage Dictionary of Policing, Sage: London.
• Wakefield, A. and Gill, M. (2009) ‘When security fails: the impact of human factors on the deployment of retail security personnel’, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, 4:2, pp.9-23.
• Wakefield A (2008) ‘Private policing: a view from the mall’, Public Administration, 86:3, pp.659-678.
• Wakefield, A (2007) ‘Carry on constable: the value of foot patrol’, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 1:3, pp.1-14.
• Wakefield, A. (2006) ‘The security officer’ in M.Gill (ed.) The Handbook of Security, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wakefield, A. (2006) The Value of Foot Patrol, London: Police Foundation.
• Wakefield, A. (2003) Selling Security: The Private Policing of Public Space, Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing.
• von Hirsch, A., Garland, D. and Wakefield, A. (eds) (2000) Ethical and Social Perspectives on Situational Crime Prevention, Oxford: Hart Publishing.
  

Other Information

• Honorary Visiting Fellow, City University London
• Member of the Academic Board and Membership Team, The Security Institute
• Editorial Board member, Security Journal
• Editorial Board member, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal
• Editorial Board member, Papers from the British Criminology Conference: An Online Journal