Private Security

Abstract

There are many ways in which “private security” can, and has been, defined. Many concepts have been used to describe it directly, such as “commercial security,” “private security companies,” “the private security industry,” “corporate” and “in-house,” security and so forth. Similarly, many concepts have been deployed as umbrella terms within which “private security” can be included or incorporated, such as “nonstate policing,” “privatized policing,” “for-profit policing,” and the like. Allowing for flexibility in terms of the continuum of private security provision, this bibliography contains literature on a spectrum of engagement that includes what can be thought of as commercial or corporate entities (businesses) undertaking security and policing functions for a profit—these functions, as this review will show, can incorporate a very wide range of activities, operating on a variety of private, public, and hybrid spaces, both locally and transnationally, and in cyberspace, and which converge and diverge with public or state policing functions, community or vigilante activities, as well as activates that align with any “conventional” corporate or business entity. Furthermore, this review is predominantly focused on “everyday,” nonmilitary forms of security and policing provision as opposed to an explicit focus on private military companies operating in conflict settings. It must be noted that scholarly literature on militarized versus nonmilitarized forms of private security tends to be divided along disciplinary lines. Therefore, traditionally, international relations and global security scholars have focused on private military companies and activities, whereas criminologists and policing scholars have focused more on the everyday, nonmilitarized forms of private security. However, this divide has been shifting, as some scholars have challenged these disciplinary boundaries, focused on the continuities between military and nonmilitary forms of security privatization, and/or increasingly undertaken an interdisciplinary approach. Given these developments, therefore, this review does include literature that seeks to acknowledge and situate private security within this continuum of form and function: from the everyday, domestic, or “low” security provision to the transnational, specialized, “high” forms of policing. The geographical focus is on both Global North and South contexts, and incorporates several thematic areas; besides the inclusion of introductory texts and general overviews, these include its governance, activities and functions, growth and development, occupational culture, powers, relations with other entities, how it is perceived and perceives itself, undertaking research on private security, and, finally, how it is theorized.