please help me to find the word I am searching for!

[minimalistthoughts]

I am doing some writing for a project. The word or term that I thought I was searching for is 'by proxy', but I have googled it and it does not mean what I thought it did!

The sentence says that something is lawful but that it is so heavily 'policed' and regulated that it is behaviour that is essentially criminalised ...[by proxy]. But that is not the right term of course.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

The sentence says that something is lawful but that it is so heavily 'policed' and regulated that it is behaviour that is essentially criminalised.

What is the “something”?

@minipie yep:

[x] is permitted, but so assiduously regulated that it is, effectively, prohibited.