Overview
What is “high policing?” The term does not refer to the euphoria police may feel after an adrenalin generating challenge is met, nor does it refer to policing while high, although both might accompany the activities falling within the concept’s broad meaning. In its original meaning, it referred to the use of political intelligence to preserve the power of the ruler, in particular as this involved stealth, spying, espionage, and intrigue. Yet, like barnacles that become attached to a ship, over time the concept has evolved and layers of meaning have been added. The original ship is long gone, but parts of it endure in new forms and settings throughout society.
High policing can refer to the location of an agency such as those attached to the highest levels of governance, to an ethos involving intelligence collection and prevention of threats to what is now called national security, and to methodsof information discovery and subsequent action swathed in secrecy and deception,...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsRecommended Reading and References
Aristotle, Politics (book 5). http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.html. Accessed 01 July 2012
Bamford J (2008) The shadow factory; the ultra-secret NSA from 9/11 to the eavesdropping on America. Doubleday, New York
Bigo D (2006) Globalized (in)security: the field and the Ban-Opticon. In: Bigo D, Tsoukala A (eds) Illiberal practices of liberal regimes: the (in)security games. L’Harmattan, Paris
Brodeur J (1983) High policing and low policing: remarks about the policing of political activities. Soc Probl 30:507–520
Brodeur J (2011) The police web. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Brunet JP (1990) La Police de l’Ombre. Seuil, Paris
Chapman B (1970) Police state. Pall Mall, London
Chesterman S (2011) One nation under surveillance: a new social contract to defend freedom without sacrificing liberty. Oxford University Press, New York
Cohen S (1985) Visions of social control. Polity Press, Cambridge
Cunningham D (2005) There’s something happening here: the new left, the Klan, and FBI counterintelligence. University of California Press, Berkeley
Donner F (1990) Protectors of privilege. University of California Press, Berkeley
Earl J (2011) Political repression: iron fists, velvet gloves, and diffuse control. Annu Rev Sociol 37:261–284
Ericson R, Haggerty K (1997) Policing the risk society. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Foucault M (1977) Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. Pantheon, New York
Greenberg I (2010) The dangers of dissent: the FBI and civil liberties since 1965. Lexington Books, Lanham
Hoogenboom R (2010) The governance of policing and security ironies, myths and paradoxes. Palgrave Macmillan, London
Hughes EC (1962) Good people and dirty work. Soc Probl 10(1):3–11
Klockars C (1980) The dirty Harry problem. Ann Am Acad Polit Soc Sci 452:33–48
Loew D (2011) The lack of discretion in high policing. Polic Soc 21:233–247
Los M, Zybertowicz A (2000) Privatizing the police state. MacMillan, Basingstoke
Lubbers E (2012) Secret manoeuvres in the dark. Pluto Press, London
Manning P (2012) Jean-Paul Brodeur on high and low policing. Nouvelle Rev Int Criminol 11
Marx GT (1974) Thoughts on a neglected category of social movement participant: the agent provocateur and the informant. Am J Sociol 80:415–421
Marx GT (1979) External efforts to damage or facilitate social movements: some patterns, explanations, outcomes, and complications. In: Zald M, McCarthy J (eds) The dynamics of social movements resource mobilization, social control and tactics. Winthrop, Cambridge, MA
Nisbet R (1977) The twilight of authority. Oxford University Press, New York
Priest D, Arkin W (2011) Top secret America. Little Brown, Boston
Ross J (2004) Impediments to transnational cooperation in undercover policing: a comparative study of the United States and Italy. Am J Comp Law 52:569–624
Shils E (1975) Center and periphery. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Silver A (1967) The demand for order in civil society: a review of some themes in the history of urban crime, police and riot. In: Bordua DJ (ed) The police. Wiley, New York
Starr A, Fernandez L, Scholl C (2011) Shutting down the streets: political violence in the global era. New York University Press, New York
The 9/11 Commission Report (2004) USGPO, Washington, DC
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Marx, G.T. (2014). High Policing. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_460
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_460
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law