Relationship between private security and crime prevention in Nigeria, A Study of Lagos State
INTRODUCTION
The historical development of private security and crime management dates back to prehistoric cultures during the Neolithic or cultural period which lasted from 7000- 3000 AD and which was characterized by hunters and food gatherers who had to provide in their own needs for safety and security as well as that of the group and their meager possessions.
Unlike nomadic cultures, small groups of human beings settled down, erected shelters and started practicing primitive agriculture. As these collectivities continued to grow, crops became a source of wealth and trade which necessitated the institution of societal rules and codes to protect life and property in an evolving agriculture society (Collins, Ricks & Van Meter, 2000). Clifford Simonsen (1998) is also of the opinion that before the emergence of social groups who gathered for companionship, reproduction, group hunting and crop growing, humans probably just wandered around the countryside like all the other animals. This author also points out that with the advent of the idea of territoriality and persona/ property, along with social relationships, people began to think in terms of safeguarding themselves, their fellowmen and their property – to introduce a form of social control that would be necessary to control human behavior such as: folkways (traditional social customs and ways of living, including ways of thinking, feeling, or acting common to a specific social group of people); mores (binding moral standards, attitudes, customs, habits and manners peculiar to a specific group of people) and laws (formal, written rules of conduct that are binding, properly defined by a legislative authority and enforced by the executive component of government). Forward into modem times, it is noteworthy to observe that, unlike public policing that exists in social context to quell violations of the common and statutory laws, private security tends to be more business-oriented like, dealing with that kind of behavior that actually does not entail a violation of any specific law, but rather a violation of policies, procedures and practices (mores) of a social group or an organization.
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