State, Police and Crime: Public Security and Private Security in Today's Argentina

Abstract

Are there direct links between crime rates and the expansion of private security? Can we find evidence to support that security market is expanding at the expense of public services provided by the State? After reviewing the main theories of the development of private security, we propose an empirical analysis of these problems: first, we analyze aggregate data on crime, public security budgets and development of private security; on the other hand, we offer an historical analysis of the phenomenon to overcome the anachronism of some private security analysis.