Manzo2004
| Manzo2004 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Manzo2004 |
| Author(s) | John Manzo |
| Title | The Folk Devil Happens to Be Our Best Customer: Security Officers' Orientations to "Youth" in Three Canadian Shopping Malls |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, shopping malls, private security, security officers |
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| Year | 2004 |
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| Journal | International Journal of the Sociology of Law |
| Volume | 32 |
| Number | 3 |
| Pages | 243–261 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ijsl.2003.06.001 |
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Abstract
Private security is an increasingly ubiquitous phenomenon in Canada and elsewhere, yet it remains an under-researched topic. The work practices of security officers, as against the organizational form of security services or other more “macro”-level topics, is especially ignored in sociology and criminology. This papers addresses those work practices in venues that are also under-researched, namely, enclosed shopping malls. Through open-ended interviews with security officers, security managers, and retail managers at three Canadian shopping malls, it is found that security officers have varied views of youth across different malls, propose different approaches to the patrol of young mall patrons, express views sometimes not anticipated based on the relative “reputation” of the mall at which the officers work, and express views not always consistent with those of their employers. The variety in officers’ perspectives is seen to be, in part, an outcome of the surprisingly brief amount of formal training that the officers receive and the attendant amount of discretion and the “by the ropes” conduct that constitutes the officers’ jobs. The paper proposes that understanding security officers’ work requires that actual, concerted practices are studied and the engagement of the officers themselves is accomplished.
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