High Policing and Low Policing - Remarks About the Policing of Political Activities

• NCJ Number: 89493
• Journal: Social Problems Volume: 30 Issue: 5 Dated: (June 1983) Pages: 507-520
• Author(s): J-P Brodeur
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Revised and slightly expanded version of a paper presented at the 34th annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Toronto, November 1982.

Annotation

Policing political activities is usually regarded as deviant police action, but this paper argues that political policing is a core feature of the high policing model of police action.

Abstract

The deviance approach focuses on police abuse, which is secretive and confuses legitimate dissent with political delinquency, such as terrorism. This paper distinguishes between the high policing and low policing models of police action. Political policing is then seen as a core feature of high policing instead of being a suspicious peripheral aspect of the police apparatus. It is argued that mainly through technological change, western police forces are increasingly operating under the high policing model. Footnotes and about 40 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)