This paper presents the first in the Russian literature review of research devoted to the roles of private and public investment in security in the economics of crime. We describe theoretical and empirical papers that deal with the strength of the deterrence and diversion effects, as well as the interaction between different security measures. Special attention is given to the roles that income inequality and institutional set-up play in the formation of the profile of security measures and the resulting distribution of crime. We also present empirical results based on the Russian regional data, which reveal a significant relationship between inequality and the ratio of private to public security measures, as well as substantial differences between more and less democratic regions.