The choice-structuring properties of security consumption: An exploratory study of security consumption culture within small shops

摘要

Using theory of the security process and the concept of choice-structuring properties as heuristic devices, this article develops a conceptual framework designed to aid our understanding of the factors that drive security consumption within the context of small shops. The conceptual framework is developed through a number of exploratory interviews with the owners of convenience stores. These suggest that a security consumption culture exists that is generated by a desire to protect businesses from crime threats and a sense of isolation from local criminal justice agencies. A self-protection mentality and functional form of worry is observed that creates demand for security, but decisions to purchase specific security objects are dictated by choice-structuring properties focused around subjective anxieties about crime events, the extent to which security devices are seen to offer reassurance, and financial constraints. Of course, these findings are (at best) tentative but help to set an agenda for further research in this area.