‘Port of call’: Towards a criminology of port security

Abstract

While public and criminological interest in ports is remarkably scarce, they form an intersection of (images of) crime and crime control. Port security organizations and personnel are confronted with that intersection in their everyday work life. In this article I will highlight the possibilities for researching port security from a criminological starting point. By describing port insecurities and their regulation, I will conceptualize the late modern condition of security. After this, the theoretical promises of a criminological analysis of port security shall be discussed, for example, how recent developed thoughts on security consumption filter through at the specific geographical sites of the port. In moving towards a criminology of port security, I aim to set the focus on security in transnational spaces and transport, and to contribute to a critical engagement within the prioritized criminological theorization of the globalized security society.