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Researching Private Security Consumption

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Abstract

This paper has two objectives: to provide an exploratory analysis of the rationalities and constraints that shape consumption of private security within organizations and to discuss some of the issues and questions that need to be addressed in future empirical studies of private security use by organizations. It is based largely on seven semi-directed interviews conducted with security managers, six of whom work in the private sector. While these security managers distanced themselves from responsibility for actual security consumption, arguing that they lack the capacity to make such decisions, they exercise considerable influence over the demand for private security within their organizations. Although all participants noted the relative ease with which they can convince their superiors to invest in security, they also indicated that security must have a demonstrated value-added component for the organization (often in money terms). Furthermore, executives expect security to be minimally intrusive and/or disruptive. This paper reports preliminary results of research on an under-investigated topic; it also builds on the methodological decisions and findings in this research to provide useful information to scholars interested in researching private security consumption in organizations.

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Notes

  1. Consumption is a concept which embraces a wide variety of practices, will it be an individual decision or an organizational act (Goold et al. 2010). It has deep social meanings and raises major and complex issues for people and society in general (Bocock 1993; Ekström and Brembeck 2004). In this article, private security consumption is understood as the purchases of security products and services made by large organizations, usually through the expertise of their Director of Security, to manage risk and prevent loss.

  2. Most individuals expressed hesitation over my intention to audiotape the interviews, which was mentioned in the consent form. In two cases, the interviewer was even informed upon arrival by the security personnel of the organizations that visitors were not allowed to have a voice recorder with them while on site. Intellectual property threats were of major concern for the vast majority of interviewees and turned out to be one of the main themes of the interviews.

  3. It should be pointed out that, because of my sample, the results cannot be generalized to smaller organizations that do not have security departments (and, by extension, a security manager). Thus, in the remainder of the discussion, when I talk about security consumption within organizations, the specifics of these organizations (large and with a Director of Security, or equivalent, function in place) are implied. If this could be seen as an important limit to this study, it should not be forgotten that large companies, alongside the State, account for the major part of the customers in the market of security (Lorenc Valcarce 2007; Mulone and Desroches 2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Science, School of Criminology, University of Montreal, PO Box 6128, Station Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Massimiliano Mulone

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Correspondence to Massimiliano Mulone.

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The author would like to thank the International Center for Comparative Criminology for their help in the editing of this paper.

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Mulone, M. Researching Private Security Consumption. Eur J Crim Policy Res 19, 401–417 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-013-9207-5

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