There is general consensus that mercenarism is and should remain prohibited. The difficulty that has arisen is firstly one of defining the exact nature of mercenarism, and more specifically what actions constitute mercenary actions. A further difficulty arises in that much of the legislation intended to outlaw mercenarism is impacting on the legal activity of private military and security contractors, who fall short of the definitional requirements of mercenarism. The two groups being so closely linked that they are often mistakenly conflated . There is currently a need to develop a response to the private military security industry, which is better suited to effectively regulate their activities, whilst also effectively criminalising the activities of those who actions amount to mercenarism. The dissertation therefore sets about analysing how these two distinct sectors: mercenaries and private military security companies, are regulated at an international and domestic level. It then uses the lessons learnt from these regulator attempts, and the various policy considerations which countries have to make, to propose a way forward in creating an effective regulatory system for mercenaries and private military companies at an international and domestic level. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Crime is rife in South Africa. Explanations abound for the high crime statistics, including the weakening of the family unit, the political history of South Africa, urbanisation and the fast growing urban neighbourhood, a weak criminal justice system and the abundant availability of firearms. In the quest to prevent crime, the private security industry has become a key performer in helping to deter and prevent crime and criminal activities. Yet there are no set criteria for selecting security officers against the backdrop of the high crime rates and a growing private security sector. Therefore the purpose was to develop a competency model for the selection of security officers for the safekeeping and protection of persons and property in the Thaba Tshwane area. I chose to do qualitative research using an interpretive approach in an attempt to understand the views of the participants concerning the work context and requirements of security officers. A grounded theory approach to the strategy of inquiry was employed as it was best suited to keeping the information that was gathered grounded in the participants’ own opinions. The focus of this research was on designing a competency model for security officers for selection purposes. Data were gathered through disciplinary records and open-ended structured interviews where the repertory grid and the behavioural event interview were applied.Eight subject matter experts, who included security officers, managers and a client working in the security industry, were used. The result of the study was a competency model of nine competencies and their definitions, which were grounded in the data and critical in functioning as an efficient security officer. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

US retailers lose over $30 billion in merchandise annually. Merchants also suffer billions more in losses of cash, supplies, time, equipment, and growing civil liability costs. In order to control these losses, retail companies use a combination of people, programs, and systems. A review of the literature indicates specialised loss prevention employees are an important part of many asset protection programs.;A major interest of managers is improving the efficiency of their crime and loss control processes, including loss prevention store detective programs. Retail managers commonly use job performance reviews to gauge the individual efficacy of store detectives. In addition to job training, and job output supervision, research has indicated certain stable characteristics of individuals helps explain actual job performance, making pre-employment selection a critical part of process improvement. However, relatively little attention has been devoted to the selection of in-store detectives in the literature.;Qualitative research was used to identify critical job tasks in order to develop and validate a specialised job performance instrument. The preliminary research with subject matter experts indicated four distinct job roles of store detectives. This job analysis also resulted in a new job performance rating instrument later tested in the quantitative phase of the project.;Subsequently, a quantitative study of 201 US store detectives (using the performance instrument in a concurrent validity design) developed four distinct selection models designed to help explain role-specific job performance variance. Four hypothesis regarding the relationship between biographical data, personality traits, cognitive ability and the four measures of job performance were tested using multiple and logistic regression. The four resulting models explained between 13% and 23% of the variance in detective job performance measures.;Implications of the project's findings, and suggestions are also discussed in context t the current sample, as well as prior work in pre-employment selection research.

The rise of the Private Military Industry has been cemented in modern global political reality, but where next will this multi-billion dollar industry go and what form will it take after the market boom of Iraq? Post-Colonial Africa is considered the birthplace of the modern mercenary and historically features prominently as a testament to the potential for immoral privately sponsored military activities within unstable states. Moreover, it is a rich market that the Private Military Industry is increasingly turning its attention to, albeit focussing on support functions for now, but a massive industry with a competitive and poorly regulated market environment will invariably begin to explore different avenues as competition grows. With market diversification grows the ethical risk of abuse. At the same time, peacekeeping efforts across the continent are hampered by numerous factors, not least of all a chronic lack of trained personnel. Could the legal and political legitimacy, not to mention the sustainable market environment sought by the PMI potentially exist in multilaterally sanctioned, privatised peacekeeping and peace support operations in Africa? Can the ethical challenges of mercenarism be suspended or even bypassed for the sake of expedient intervention in potential genocides, or be perhaps pragmatically accepted as an inevitable development that should be embraced rather than condemned, for strategic security reasons? Can the ethical condemnation of the proposed means of peace support be overridden by the potential ends generated by such a move? Is the world ready for privatised peacekeepers? This dissertation explores the ethical background to the privatisation of military operations and how these foreign policy trends and social perceptions of control of force impact on the notion of privatised peacekeeping, particularly in the context of operations in Africa. It investigates the philosophical implications of privatised peacekeeping by way of a constrained pragmatic form of consequentialist evaluation that warns against reckless expediency. Ultimately, this dissertation offers a more philosophically suitable argument to justify and control this seemingly inevitable next step in the trend of privatisation of force. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

Univ., Diss.--Bielefeld, 2000. / Literaturverz. S. 263 - 276.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri State University, 2009. / "May 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-97). Also available online.

The aim of the study was to determine the causes of IODs in the workplace and to identify possible preventative measures to reduce IODs. A literature review was conducted as part of the study, involving assessment of all related articles and books on the subject of IODs in the workplace. A qualitative research methodology was utilised to conduct the study. The main research instruments were four focus group interviews and eight individual interviews. The study concluded that employees experienced IODs in different ways, with most participants describing negative experiences such as physical pain, undue financial hardship, psychological trauma and lack of support from the employer. A minor percentage experienced IODs in a positive sense in that there is heightened safety awareness in the workplace after an IOD has occurred, and the adoption of a more cautious approach by employees when performing their duties. From a practical and organisational/managerial perspective, the adoption of effective training of security officers and adherence to organisational standard operating procedures will assist in reducing IODs in the workplace. Limitations of the study included the small sample size from the research population, perceived language barriers during the interview processes and non-participation and inputs from managers at the organisation. However, it is hoped that the study will form the basis for further research to broaden the field to include parastatal or public-service entities / Human Resource Management / M. Com. (Human Resource Management)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:32:20Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 paoliello_to_me_mar.pdf: 427260 bytes, checksum: 8192f058d3716664b52425847d1d9b5e (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Nos dias de hoje, um dos fenômenos que chama atenção e suscita o debate no âmbito da disciplina de relações internacionais é a ascensão das chamadas empresas de segurança privada. A atual dissertação se dedica ao estudo da inserção de tais empresas no contexto angolano durante os anos 1990. Essa inserção é marcada por dois momentos, um primeiro, paradigmático para a literatura sobre o tema, trata da ação particular da empresa Executive Outcomes. Num segundo momento, abordamos o desenvolvimento de um mercado local para a segurança privada, construído por uma série de dispositivos que fazem do panorama angolano um modelo único e ainda pouco estudado. Angola foi um campo de teste para a atuação das empresas de segurança privada, mas acabou se transformando num caso excepcional, com uma série de empresas locais provendo a segurança para o país durante o conflito interno, e tornando-se fundamentais para o desenho de poder em Angola. Essa situação é derivada de uma série de especificidades da história angolana, notadamente a permanente violência, e a perpetuação da fragilidade do Estado. Desenvolvemos a discussão sobre o papel das empresas de segurança privada como novos atores no sistema internacional, e observamos o alcance das descobertas sobre tais empresas quando confrontadas com o caso de Angola / Nowadays, one of the phenomena that draws attention and raises the debate within the discipline of international relations is the rise of the so-called private security companies. The present dissertation studies the inclusion of such companies in the Angolan context during the 1990s. This inclusion is marked by two moments, the first one paradigmatic for the literature on the subject, the particular action of the company Executive Outcomes. Secondly, we discuss the development of a local market for private security, built by a series of devices that make the Angolan landscape a unique and poorly studied model. Angola was a testing ground for the actions of the private security companies, but turned out to be an exceptional case with a number of local companies providing security for the country during its own internal conflict, and making them fundamental for the design of Power in Angola. This situation is derived from a number of specific features of the Angolan history, especially the continued violence and the perpetuation of state fragility. We further explore the discussion on the role of private security companies as new actors in the international system, and observe the range of findings about these companies when confronted with the case of Angola

Orientador: Reginaldo Mattar Nasser / Banca: Mônica Herz / Banca: Flávia de Campos Mello / O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais é instituído em parceria com a Unesp/Unicamp/PUC-SP, em projeto subsidiado pela CAPES, intitulado "Programa San Tiago Dantas" / Resumo: Nos dias de hoje, um dos fenômenos que chama atenção e suscita o debate no âmbito da disciplina de relações internacionais é a ascensão das chamadas empresas de segurança privada. A atual dissertação se dedica ao estudo da inserção de tais empresas no contexto angolano durante os anos 1990. Essa inserção é marcada por dois momentos, um primeiro, paradigmático para a literatura sobre o tema, trata da ação particular da empresa Executive Outcomes. Num segundo momento, abordamos o desenvolvimento de um mercado local para a segurança privada, construído por uma série de dispositivos que fazem do panorama angolano um modelo único e ainda pouco estudado. Angola foi um campo de teste para a atuação das empresas de segurança privada, mas acabou se transformando num caso excepcional, com uma série de empresas locais provendo a segurança para o país durante o conflito interno, e tornando-se fundamentais para o desenho de poder em Angola. Essa situação é derivada de uma série de especificidades da história angolana, notadamente a permanente violência, e a perpetuação da fragilidade do Estado. Desenvolvemos a discussão sobre o papel das empresas de segurança privada como novos atores no sistema internacional, e observamos o alcance das descobertas sobre tais empresas quando confrontadas com o caso de Angola / Abstract: Nowadays, one of the phenomena that draws attention and raises the debate within the discipline of international relations is the rise of the so-called private security companies. The present dissertation studies the inclusion of such companies in the Angolan context during the 1990s. This inclusion is marked by two moments, the first one paradigmatic for the literature on the subject, the particular action of the company Executive Outcomes. Secondly, we discuss the development of a local market for private security, built by a series of devices that make the Angolan landscape a unique and poorly studied model. Angola was a testing ground for the actions of the private security companies, but turned out to be an exceptional case with a number of local companies providing security for the country during its own internal conflict, and making them fundamental for the design of Power in Angola. This situation is derived from a number of specific features of the Angolan history, especially the continued violence and the perpetuation of state fragility. We further explore the discussion on the role of private security companies as new actors in the international system, and observe the range of findings about these companies when confronted with the case of Angola / Mestre

Orientador: Andrei Koerner / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T21:44:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lopes_CleberdaSilva_M.pdf: 2526653 bytes, checksum: 008a185418187f4991c15c082e02c99e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: A emergência da segurança privada e de organizações e agentes particulares que provêem policiamento de maneira informal colocaram novos problemas para a efetivação dos direitos civis na sociedade brasileira. O trabalho analisa o controle estatal sobre a segurança privada exercido pela Polícia Federal no período 1996-2006. Constata que nos últimos quatro anos ocorreram melhoras nos instrumentos legais que visam assegurar policiamento privado responsável publicamente, mas persistem regras deficientes e mecanismos frágeis para incentivar o controle interno e o controle externo da segurança privada. Verifica também melhoras na capacidade fiscalizadora da Polícia Federal sobre o universo legal da segurança privada, mas permanece baixa e limitada a sua capacidade para fiscalizar o universo informal dos provedores particulares de policiamento / Abstract: The private security emergency and of organizations and private agents that provide policing in an informal way they put new problems for the effectives of the civil rights in the Brazilian society. The work analyzes the state control on the private security exercised by the Federal Police in the period 1996-2006. The study verifies that in the last four years they happened improvements in the legal instruments that they seek to assure responsible policing openly, but they persist deficient rules and fragile mechanisms to motivate the internal control and the private security external control. It also verifies improvements in the capacity supervise of the Federal Police on the private security legal universe, but it stays low and limited his capacity to supervise the providers' peculiar of policing informal universe / Mestrado / Mestre em Ciência Política