Bruce L. Benson

The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State is a 1990 book by Bruce L. Benson, in which he challenges readers' assumptions about the nature of the legal justice system. Benson uses "economic theory to compare institutions and incentives that influence public policy and private performance in the provision of law …

Traces the accelerating trend towards privatization in the criminal justice system In contrast to government's predominant role in criminal justice today, for many centuries crime control was almost entirely private and community-based. Government police forces, prosecutors, courts, and prisons are all recent …