Among the traditional roles of a nation, the most fundamental function was public peace and national defense. Such public peace services were provided only by a nation or public institutions in terms of providing subjects in the past, whereas such rol...
Among the traditional roles of a nation, the most fundamental function was public peace and national defense. Such public peace services were provided only by a nation or public institutions in terms of providing subjects in the past, whereas such roles are assumed by private security in the contemporary time. So, the purpose of this study is to consider the characters (natures) of private security, In order to understand the characters which private security contains, this study considered the characters of private security by investigating empirically the present state of private security in the regulative contents (the scope of duties, permit and management, officers` disqualification, and education) on the basis of Security Industry Law, and the perception of private security-related workers on such regulations. Based on the results of this study, the followings should be considered in order to understand the characters of private security. First, private security is public peace services. Although there are some overlaps or some differences between the public peace services which public police(order maintenance, law enforcement, and service provision) provides and the public peace services (facilities, escort, electronic, security guard(body guard), and special security) which private security provides, private security also provides public peace services as well. Second, public peace service are public services. If public services are generally regarded as the activities which a nation or a public institutionexecutes for public interest, public peace services are one of public services. Especially, in function, public peace services perform the function of maintaining public order and protecting citizens` personal and physical resources from the risks of crimes, disorders, and all disasters. Third, the public peace services which private security provides are regulated by a nation. Public peace services receive a nation`s regulations (supervision, permit, mission, education, offices` disqualification, and punishment) through its laws. Each nation regulates the field of private security by diverse methods. Such nation utilizes the direct regulative methods such as permits. Also, such nation utilizes the indirect regulative methods by requesting the related certificates of qualification or the completion of education time for performing the jobs in the fields of duties. That is, the public peace services which private security executes are the public services which a nation should execute originally. However, owing to several reasons, private sector provides public peace services instead of a nation. Thus, in order to maintain the publicness which private security should keep, each nation regulates private security by diverse methods. This perception is also shown in investigating private security-related workers` (policemen, security industry employers, and guards) perception on such regulations. The workers who are engaged in private security perceive that, because the attributes of private security include the value to pursue public interest, it is necessary to regulate such private security at a minimum through a nation or public institutions. In the basis of these results of this study, the character of private security is that private security has its publicness. It is meaningful that, in order to understand the characters of private security, this study examined the legal aspect and perceptional aspect of private security and confirmed the relation between private security and publicness by using the concepts of publicness, public interest, and public services.