Governing by think tank? From experts to political ideologues in UK criminal justice and security

The more criminology has flourished as an academic discipline, the more it has retreated from providing useful knowledge for governments. Management consultancies, lobby organizations and think tanks have quickly filled this gap. Debates about privatization focus on contracting out of police and prisons and rarely consider the influence and ‘insourcing’ of private know-how and private advisors, or their impact on criminal justice, counter-terrorism and security policy. Unlike NGOs and lobby groups for penal reform, think tanks are little studied, even though their political ideology, reliance on private funding and lack of transparency impact democratic politics and public accountability. We ask how and why think tanks became players in steering the futures of criminal justice and security, with what consequences and at what cost to the publicness of public policy.