Private Security Firms Research Articles

Uncle Sam Wants Them

Throughout most of the 20th century, warring nation—states generally had two options to increase their military strength. They could create a coalition—as the United States did in World War II—or institute a draft—as it did in Vietnam. Today, though, countries have a third option. Rent. Hiring private military corporations, sometimes called private security corporations or private security firms, has fast become a popular way for nations to fight wars.

Security: Collective Good or Commodity?

The state monopoly on the legitimate use of violence in Europe and North America has been central to the development of security as a collective good. Not only has it institutionalized the state as the prime national and international security provider, it has helped to reduce the threat from other actors by either prohibiting or limiting their use of violence. The recent growth of the private security industry appears to undermine this view. Not only are private security firms proliferating at the national level; private military companies are also taking over an increasing range of military functions in both national defence and international interventions. This article seeks to provide an examination of the theoretical and practical implications of the shift from states to markets in the provision of security. Specifically, it discusses how the conceptualization of security as a commodity rather than a collective good affects the meaning and implementation of security in Western democracies.

Outlaw Private Security Firms: Criminal and Terrorist Agendas Undermine Private Security Alternatives

The thousands of large and small private security establishments operating around the world today continue to expand in number, diversity, and capability. Government oversight is often lacking, and the impact on local, national and regional security and stability may be substantial. In the most troubled areas, the pockets of security provided by private security regimens provide may mean the difference between a failed state and one that is at least faltering. However, the advantages of “private security firm cover” quickly became evident to criminals and groups with terrorist agendas as well. This assessment addresses numerous cases from around the world of private security establishments that were either formed for—or otherwise turned to—the pursuit of criminal or terrorist purposes. The stated jihadist intent to infiltrate such companies underscores the need for law enforcement and intelligence attention to the recruiting, affiliations and activities of these security enterprises.

Biometric borders: Governing mobilities in the war on terror

This article proposes the concept of the biometric border in order to signal a dual-faced phenomenon in the contemporary war on terror: the turn to scientific technologies and managerial expertise in the politics of border management; and the exercise of biopower such that the bodies of migrants and travellers themselves become sites of multiple encoded boundaries. Drawing on the US VISIT programme of border controls (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology), the article proposes three central themes of the politics of the biometric border. First, the use of risk profiling as a means of governing mobility within the war on terror, segregating ‘legitimate’ mobilities such as leisure and business, from ‘illegitimate’ mobilities such as terrorism and illegal immigration. Second, the representation of biometrics and the body, such that identity is assumed to be anchored as a source of prediction and prevention. Finally, the techniques of authorization that allow the surveillance of mobility to be practiced by private security firms and homeland security citizens alike. Throughout the article, I argue that, though the biometric border is becoming an almost ubiquitous frontier in the war on terror, it also contains ambivalent, antagonistic and undecidable moments that make it contestable.

‘Guards and Guns’: Towards Privatised Militarism in Post-Apartheid South Africa

This article argues that contemporary South Africa is marked by the coexistence of both old and new forms of militarism. A shallow and uneven process of state demilitarisation was underway between 1990 to 1998 in the form of reductions in military expenditure, weapons holdings, force levels, employment in arms production and base closures. However, this has had contradictory consequences including providing an impetus to a ‘privatised militarism’ that is evident in three related processes: new forms of violence, the growth of private security firms and the proliferation of small arms. Since 1998 a process of re-militarisation is evident in the use of the military in foreign policy and a re-armament programme. Both trends illustrate how a restructured, but not transformed, post-apartheid army represents a powerful block of military interests.

Governability Matters: The Private Policing of Economic Crime and the Challenge of Democratic Governance

Policing scholars have long recognized the challenges posed by the privatization and pluralization of policing to prospects for democratic governance. However, these concerns have been geared almost exclusively to the frontline policing functions of private security firms and have overlooked developments in the wider field of security. This article challenges this limited vision by extending the question of governance and accountability to the field of financial security and the activities of the “forensic accounting and corporate investigation industry” as a private alternative to the public policing of economic crime. Drawing on documentary research and semi-structured interviews, the argument is advanced that the unique characteristics of this industry and the legal environment in which it operates conspire to problematize and limit its amenability to external forms of governance and control. Understanding these barriers to governability is presented as a necessary first step in coming to terms with the growth of the FACI industry as a purveyor of financial security.

Terrorism, Airport Security, and the Private Sector

AbstractSeptember 11, 2001, led to renewed emphasis on airport security in the United States. Before the tragedy, government policy led to a suboptimal level of security. The fundamental problem was not simply the use of private security firms, but rather the reliance on airline financing and poor Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight. After 9/11 a federalized security system was put in place. The current system of tightened security is substantially more costly and should be evaluated in terms of its cost‐effectiveness compared to a public–private approach.

Law, Relationships and Private Enforcement: Transactional Strategies of Russian Enterprises

We examine how Russian enterprises do business with one another, focusing on the strategies used to obtain efficiency and predictability in their transactions. Using survey data, the paper analyzes the relative importance of relational contracting, self-enforcement, enterprise networks, private security firms, administrative institutions, and courts. Enterprise-to-enterprise negotiations are preferred, but courts are used when disputes resist resolution through negotiation. Consistently, little evidence suggests enterprises resort to private enforcement, indicating overstatement in the supposed connection between weakness in law and the mafia's rise. Legacies of the old administrative enforcement mechanisms are few, although enterprise networks from Soviet days remain resilient.

‘Household Security’: Private Policing and Vigilantism in Doncaster

The extension of private security patrols into public spaces has increased considerably in recent years and both the government and the police service have indicated a willingness to seek ways to accommodate and regulate private security companies. This article presents the results of a study into the operation of one private security company in a working‐class area in the North of England. It examines some of the difficulties that will be faced by the police, the formal agents of law and order in attempting to regulate private security firms and highlights the motivation of ordinary citizens faced by increasing fear of crime. At the same time it allows us to challenge some earlier assumptions about the nature of vigilantism and suggests a modification of Johnson's 1996 definition.

Bubbles of Governance: Private Policing and the Law in Canada

AbstractIn the last three decades, the public-private organization of policing in Canada has undergone significant change. It is now common sociological knowledge that there has been formidable growth in private security alongside evolving forms of private governance. These changing social relations have resulted in the prominence of actuarial practices and agents to enforce them. This paper examines how the Canadian socio-legal context affects and is affected by both private security and new, more aggressive, ‘parapolicing’ organizations. We update the state of knowledge on the powers of private security personnel by examiningCriminal Codeprovisions in apost-Charterlegal environment, comparing provincial trespass Acts, and analyzing how one aggressive ‘Law Enforcement Company’ as well as other private security firms, more generally, are both enabled and constrained by these legal provisions.

Private Security and its Contribution to Policing: Under-Researched, Under-Utilised and Underestimated

Policing has become increasingly associated with what the police do by academics, practitioners and policy makers. Yet there is a wide range of individuals and organisations, other than the police, engaged in policing. These include other public bodies such as Customs and Excise, trading standards officers, vigilantes and private security firms to name a few. One of the most significant of these is the latter. This paper assesses the contribution of private security to policing by analysing some of the main activities undertaken and comparing them to those pursued by the police. It also argues that private security is under-researched in comparison to the police, particularly given the significant roles that are undertaken. It also argues private security is under-utilised in its potential contribution to policing and crime prevention. Finally, the paper considers how private security is often underestimated when some of the potential causes for concern are considered.

Law, Relationships, and Private Enforcement: Transactional Strategies of Russian Enterprises

We examine how Russian enterprises do business with one another, focusing on the strategies used to obtain efficiency and predictability in their transactions. Using survey data, the paper analyzes the relative importance of relational contracting, self-enforcement, enterprise networks, private security firms, administrative institutions, and courts. Enterprise-to-enterprise negotiations are preferred, but courts are used when disputes resist resolution through negotiation. Consistently, little evidence suggests enterprises resort to private enforcement, indicating overstatement in the supposed connection between weakness in law and the mafia's rise. Legacies of the old administrative enforcement mechanisms are few, although enterprise networks from Soviet days remain resilient.

Military‐advisory groups and African security: Privatized peacekeeping?

Private security firms are growing in influence throughout Africa and other regions of the world; generally composed of former special forces personnel from Western or Southern African countries, they increasingly include strong capabilities in combat firepower and support. While most often they are involved in the re‐training and re‐equipping of national armies in these countries, they have also been involved in combat operations to secure and stabilize strategic mineral or oil‐producing regions from rebel movements, or have assisted rebel movements in overthrowing the national government in order to ensure a better deal for the mining and oil firms with which they cooperate. The increasing activity of these private military‐advisory groups in regional security has raised the issue of whether such firms could replace the role of the international community in regional peacekeeping operations, or whether they are evocative of the continuing evolution of the mercenary.

Thinking about private prisons

At present, there are more than twenty companies in the United States, taking in more than $250 million in annual revenues, that operate private jails and prisons. These companies incarcerate about 50,000 inmates, a relatively small portion of the estimated 1.5 million individuals in jails and prisons across the country. Still, such private facilities are growing at four times the rate of state facilities.[1] The administration of legal punishment has long been the province of the state. But the growth in private prisons indicates that, to some extent, governments are modifying their traditional roles in relation to legal offenders. We are, by now, familiar with proposals to privatize various government operations. It is also commonplace for government agencies to contract with private industries for the provision of certain goods and services. But there are differences between these sorts of real or proposed government-industry relations and those exemplified by the private prisons boom.1 It is quite possible to conceive of the state without presupposing that one of its essential functions is, for instance, to supply postal services to its citizens. However, the enforcement of law, an aspect of which includes the administration of punishment, has been for many political theorists a crucial part of the raison d'etre of the state. Punishment has been seen as a state function in order to limit if not eliminate the influence of private interests over the detection, trial, and sanctioning of lawbreakers -- in short, to ensure that all individuals are treated equally before the law. In theory we strive to create institutions and procedures that punish all and only those who have broken the criminal law. In reality, of course, we know that we often fan short of this ideal. If the criminal justice system is viewed as a continuum that starts with policing and ends with the return of lawbreakers to society, privatization is making inroads at both ends of this continuum. We have private security firms engaged in the detection of law-breaking, and private companies of various kinds involved in the sanctioning of lawbreakers. At first glance these appear to be alarming trends since they represent the intrusion of private interests into the criminal justice system, an intrusion that is officially recognized, indeed encouraged, by the state. Yet perhaps it is possible to see the criminal justice system as consisting of different functions, some of which must remain in the hands of public authorities and others of which can be safely assigned to private enterprises overseen by public authorities. That, at least, is what proponents of privatization maintain. In his book on the subject, Charles Logan argues that, compared to existing public prisons along a range of dimensions, private prisons fare no worse than public ones and may fare better.[3] Logan's discussion covers, among other things, the quality, cost, and security of private prisons. Many of his arguments are quite persuasive.[4] As he makes clear, private prisons are not completely private -- they operate only under the control and authority of the government. This is a crucial point to keep in mind throughout the discussion that follows. We might be skeptical about the effectiveness of such government oversight, but we must concede to the proponents of private prisons that it is presupposed in their arguments. I will also concede that private prisons might provide incarceration facilities that are at least as secure, efficient, well-run, and humane as existing public jails and prisons. As Logan admits, that may not be conceding much, but it is not along these dimensions that my concerns lie. What is striking about Logan's analysis is what it leaves out. He does not question the recent alarming increase in the use of incarceration in the United States, taking it as a given that local, state, and federal governments will require expanded prison facilities. …

Perceived Neighborhood Crime and the Impact of Private Security

Citizens and businesses have generally rejected the expectation that criminal justice authorities can successfully achieve their delegated responsibility of protecting life and property. These people have employed alternative measures in securing desired safety from criminal victimization. This article focuses upon the following concerns: (1) the growth and impact of private security, (2) the significance of private policing as reflected in citizen attitudes toward crime prevention measures, (3) the model implementation of private security in an urban community, and (4) alternatives as reflected by the impact of the Guardian Angels and other citizen patrol efforts in anticrime programs versus the employment of private security firms.

The Legal Liability of a Private Security Guard Company for the Criminal Acts of Third Parties: An Overview

The circumstances in which a private security guard company will be held monetarily liable to victims of criminal acts by third parties are examined. The standard of care imposed upon private security companies by general legal principles throughout the United States is identified as well as those classes of persons to whom such a duty is owed. Several common-law principles that mitigate the imposition of any liability imposed upon private security firms are also noted.