Private economies of knowledge in criminal justice: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Growing salience of private knowledge infrastructures and providers poses profound challenges to critical social thought, and to criminology more specifically. Yet we know little about privatized knowledge production, private knowledge providers and their impact on criminal justice and crime policy more generally. These are the questions that animate this collection of articles. We examine the encoding and inclusion of commercial and private knowledge regimes into state criminal justice practices. We ask: What happens to matters of public interest when their knowledge foundations are shaped by private actors? How is privatization and commercialization affecting the production and understanding of knowledge and expertise within criminal justice, as well as the nature and quality of decision-making, particularly its impartiality, transparency and public nature?