British Journal of Criminology Advance Access originally published online on September 28, 2005
British Journal of Criminology 2006 46(4):641-660; doi:10.1093/bjc/azi090
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The British Journal of Criminology 46:641-660 (2006)
© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
‘Eye Spy Private High’
Re-Conceptualizing High Policing Theory
* Institute of Criminology, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast; c.f.oreilly{at}qub.ac.uk; g.ellison{at}qub.ac.uk.
This paper contests traditional analyses of high policing, suggesting that it needs to be decoupled (in theoretical terms) from its umbilical linkage to public actors and the preservation and augmentation of state authority. Arguing that conventional conceptualizations of high policing fail to acknowledge the role of private actors, we adopt the term ‘private high policing’ to more accurately reflect the complexity of this paradigm. In particular, we note a long legacy of protecting dominant interests within corporate power structures, as well as increased involvement in outsourced security services for Western states. This has reached its zenith in the recent conflict/reconstruction efforts in Iraq. Eschewing conventional notions of the ‘proxy’ debate, we propose a more complex relationship of obfuscation whereby both public and private high policing actors cross-permeate and coalesce in the pursuit of symbiotic state and corporate objectives.