Segurança Pública, Violência Urbana e Expansão do Setor de Segurança Privada no Município do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The research was guided by the purpose of identifying how, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the lack of public security policies affect the private security sector. The referential theoretical framework embraced the themes of social and economic contextualization of private security, the institutionalization of private security and the problem of public security in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The empirical stage of the study included semi-structured interviews with key informants, three of whom were directors of different medium-sized companies in the private security sector located in the municipality, a high-ranking officer of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, and the president of a private organization which provides training services to civilians, military and police forces. The results confirms contradictory aspects of integration and imbalance between the private security sector and the public power, as well as raises unique issues, such as the causal relation between the media role in violence and the growth of the sector, and the antinomy between the amplification of the ostensible presence of the police force on the streets and the increase of the sense of insecurity that causes the growth of the demand for private security.