![]() ![]() As ideal types, states vary along multidimensional continua from full fledged, totalitarian police states that are a law unto themselves where citizens have no rights, to democratic societies under the rule of law where citizens in principle have full rights. Society must possess a police force governed by law, but the police force must not possess the society, be beyond, nor create the law. The tools of high policing can thus be seen as either an overarching mushroom cloud or as a rainbow. Elements of high policing are found in all states and the use of intelligence (as broadly defined) to protect the organization and to further its goals (and to varying degrees the private goals of leaders) is a characteristic of all modern organizations. Yet it also is a legitimate and (sometimes illegitimate) feature of democratic societies. The modern police state has high policing at its core. High policing grew out of late 17th and 18th century ideas and practices associated with the appearance of the modern policed society and police state. 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 methods of information discovery and subsequent action swathed in secrecy and deception, some of which are at the edge, or over, the bounds of conventional morality and are supported by an end-justifies-the-means perspective (and sometimes the reverse).The latter is illustrated by a police official's rhetorical question: "If we have the technology, why not use it?" The original ship is long gone, but parts of it endure in new forms and settings throughout society. ![]() Yet, like barnacles that become attached to a ship, over time the concept has evolved and layers of meaning have been added. 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. 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. Gary Marx bio | Back to Main Page | References Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Springer, forthcoming.
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