Private Police in Emerging Markets: South Korea

Private Police in Emerging Markets: South Korea

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has made significant progress in the market sector in the past four decades. Relative to its neighbors in Asia, South Korea has increased its market base both in terms of production and consumption. Along with economic growth, South Korea has also experienced an increase in the employment of private security personnel. Despite large increases in the growth of the private policing industry in the last four decades in the emerging markets, we know very little about how the public perceives agents of private policing. In this paper we examine South Korean youth perceptions of private security officers. Responses were received from 172 college students. The findings suggest that respondents generally held positive attitudes toward security work and security officers.