Assessment of households’ perceptions of private security companies and crime in urban Ghana

The article is structured into four sections. The first deals with the global rise of private security companies (PSCs) and the Ghanaian case, while section two looks at the study’s methodology. Section three presents findings in terms of the paper’s objectives. The last section provides conclusions of the research. Based on informant interviews as well as a survey of 2,745 households undertaken in key Ghanaian cities the study critically examines household perceptions of PSCs. Contrary to dominant propositions in the literature, the household survey identified job creation and business as the most important drivers for the proliferation of PSCs