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Private Security in Guatemala: The Pathway to Its Proliferation

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  • Argueta, Otto

Abstract

It has become commonplace to explain the proliferation of private security services as causally determined by crime rates and institutional weakness. By contrast, this paper ar-gues that another explanatory factor needs to be emphasized, especially for post-war so-cieties: continuity and change of social control mechanisms. The paper first presents the current situation with commercial and noncommercial private security services in Guate-mala (private security companies, as well as neighborhood security committees). Against this background, it reconstructs mechanisms and critical junctures by which the Guatema-lan state sourced out policing functions to the private sector during the war, and traces the reinforcement of these mechanisms in the post-war society. It argues that the proliferation of private security services is an outcome of the overlapping of different political processes and sequences. The continuity of social control mechanisms thereby emerges as a stronger explanatory factor for this proliferation, rather than the common justification of high crime rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Argueta, Otto, 2010. "Private Security in Guatemala: The Pathway to Its Proliferation," GIGA Working Papers 144, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:144
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lambach, Daniel, 2007. "Oligopolies of Violence in Post-Conflict Societies," GIGA Working Papers 62, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Huhn, Sebastian & Oettler, Anika & Peetz, Peter, 2006. "Construyendo Inseguridades. Aproximaciones a la violencia en Centroamérica desde el análisis del discurso [Constructed insecurities. Discourse analysis and the understanding of violence in Central ," GIGA Working Papers 34, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    3. Arriagada, Irma & Godoy, Lorena, 2000. "Prevention or repression? The false dilemma of citizen security," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
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