A Failure To Impose Control: Private Security And The Mexican State

The private security industry is growing rapidly across the globe and governments are implementing numerous strategies to attempt to control it. Scholars tend to agree that drafting and imposing comprehensive regulations is one of the most effective strategies states can use to control and direct private security companies to reduce insecurity and operate effectively, safely, and accountably. A number of studies on private security tend to highlight – and rightfully so – the weaknesses or absence of states’ private security regulations (Argueta, 2012; Born; Buzatu, 2008; Lopes, 2018; McCrie, 2017; Nagaraj, 2012; Simelane, 2008). However, strengthening a regulatory regime is not sufficient for solving many problems plaguing the private security industry and can even be counterproductive if state institutions are weak