| dc.description.abstract | The role of private actors in policing has become a topic both in research and policy as police forces struggle with budgetary and expertise-related constraints. These challenges are evident in art crime policing, where even specialist units can find their resources limited. The necessary knowhow and resources are however present in the private sector. Accordingly, it has been suggested that art crime lends itself to police and private actors cooperating in the pursuit of crime control. There is, however, a paucity of empirical research on whether and why such art crime policing co-production occurs. This research addresses these questions. It does so by examining the policing of art crime in Belgium, the United Kingdom, and France; three case studies with varying police capacity for art crime, availability of private expertise, and profile in the global art market. These case studies were based on information gathered from semi-structured interviews, official documents and statements, and a review of the literature on plural policing and art crime. Comparing the case studies on the basis of themes identified in the literature, it was found that while limits to police capacity are an important driver for plural art crime policing and policing co-production, several other factors also significantly affect co-production. The findings implied that policing co-production cannot be considered a feature of art crime policing, because the relationships between the actors were not stable enough to consider them to be truly co-producing art crime policing. | en_US |
