Sécurité privée au Québec, un marché en évolution ?

Abstract

The majority of studies centering on the evolution of private security use a count of agents, agencies, or both as a focus of analysis. This article is concerned with the possible biases and validity problems related to such indicators. An economic framework is, in turn, proposed to study the market and evolution of private security. Trends observed include a decline in the market for guarding and an increase in the private investigation market, with the later, however, continuing to represent only a small share of the overall private security market. It is argued that one cannot conclude on the decline in the overall market for private security because data on expanding and new technologies in the field are lacking.