The Discourse of Police Interviews

The Discourse of Police Interviews
Author: Marianne Mason
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2020-04-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 022664782X

Forensic linguistics, or the study of language and the law, is a growing field of scholarly and public interest with an established research presence. The Discourse of Police Interviews aims to further the discussion by analyzing how police interviews are constructed and used to investigate and prosecute crimes. The first book to focus exclusively on the discourses of police interviewing, The Discourse of Police Interviews examines leading debates, approaches, and topics in contemporary police interview research. Among other topics, the book explores the sociolegal, psychological, and discursive framework of popular police interview techniques employed in the United States and the United Kingdom, such as PEACE and Reid, and the discursive practices of institutional representatives like police officers and interpreters that can influence the construction and quality of linguistic evidence. Together, the contributions situate the police interview as part of a complex, and multistage, criminal justice process. The book will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners in a variety of fields, such as linguistic anthropology, interpreting studies, criminology, law, and sociology.

The Language of Police Interviewing

The Language of Police Interviewing
Author: G. Heydon
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2004-12-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0230502938

Police interviewing is a critical part of the justice process, and more attention is now being paid to training in interview techniques. This new study uses tools drawn from interactional sociolinguistics and conversation analysis for a detailed study of some police questioning of adult suspects, and work undertaken in the training of police in interviewing children - in which quite different approaches seem to be adopted. Critical discourse analytic techniques are used in interpreting the outcome and the implications for training are explored.

Confessions of Guilt

Confessions of Guilt
Author: George C. Thomas III
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2012-04-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0199939063

How did the United States, a nation known for protecting the “right to remain silent” become notorious for condoning and using controversial tactics like water boarding and extraordinary rendition to extract information? What forces determine the laws that define acceptable interrogation techniques and how do they shift so quickly from one extreme to another? In Confessions of Guilt, esteemed scholars George C. Thomas III and Richard A. Leo tell the story of how, over the centuries, the law of interrogation has moved from indifference about extreme force to concern over the slightest pressure, and back again. The history of interrogation in the Anglo-American world, they reveal, has been a swinging pendulum rather than a gradual continuum of violence. Exploring a realist explanation of this pattern, Thomas and Leo demonstrate that the law of interrogation and the process of its enforcement are both inherently unstable and highly dependent on the perceived levels of threat felt by a society. Laws react to fear, they argue, and none more so than those that govern the treatment of suspected criminals. From England of the late eighteenth century to America at the dawn of the twenty-first, Confessions of Guilt traces the disturbing yet fascinating history of interrogation practices, new and old, and the laws that govern them. Thomas and Leo expertly explain the social dynamics that underpin the continual transformation of interrogation law and practice and look critically forward to what their future might hold.

Analysing Witness Testimony

Analysing Witness Testimony
Author: Anthony Heaton-Armstrong
Publisher: Blackstone Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 1999
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781854317315

The consideration of witness testimony had traditionally been a task left to fact-finders with scant guidance from legal professionals. As a result, various practices have developed during the investigative and trial process which can obscure or even eradicate critical material. Miscarriages of justice will continue to occur, so long as those working within the justice system continue to accept witnesses and their testimony at face value. This book aims to make practitioners, as well as the fact-finders and those who guide them, aware of a wide range of perspectives on witness testimony. Each contributor identifies bad practice and puts forward ideas for improvement or removal of previously acceptable investigative and forensic methods.

Interpreter-mediated Police Interviews

Interpreter-mediated Police Interviews
Author: I. Nakane
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2014-07-12
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1137443197

This book shows how participation of interpreters as mediators changes the dynamics of police interviews, particularly with regard to power struggles and competing versions of events. The analysis of interaction offers insights into language in the legal process.

Police Interrogation and American Justice

Police Interrogation and American Justice
Author: Richard A. Leo
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0674033701

"Read him his rights." We all recognize this line from cop dramas. But what happens afterward? In this book, Richard Leo sheds light on a little-known corner of our criminal justice system--the police interrogation. Incriminating statements are necessary to solve crimes, but suspects almost never have reason to provide them. Therefore, as Leo shows, crime units have developed sophisticated interrogation methods that rely on persuasion, manipulation, and deception to move a subject from denial to admission, serving to shore up the case against him. Ostensibly aimed at uncovering truth, the structure of interrogation requires that officers act as an arm of the prosecution. Skillful and fair interrogation allows authorities to capture criminals and deter future crime. But Leo draws on extensive research to argue that confessions are inherently suspect and that coercive interrogation has led to false confession and wrongful conviction. He looks at police evidence in the court, the nature and disappearance of the brutal "third degree," the reforms of the mid-twentieth century, and how police can persuade suspects to waive their Miranda rights. An important study of the criminal justice system, Police Interrogation and American Justice raises unsettling questions. How should police be permitted to interrogate when society needs both crime control and due process? How can order be maintained yet justice served?

Handbook of Data Analysis

Handbook of Data Analysis
Author: Melissa A Hardy
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 729
Release: 2009-06-17
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1446242897

A fundamental book for social researchers. It provides a first-class, reliable guide to the basic issues in data analysis. Scholars and students can turn to it for teaching and applied needs with confidence.

Language, Crime and Courts in Contemporary Africa and Beyond

Language, Crime and Courts in Contemporary Africa and Beyond
Author: Russell H. Kaschula
Publisher: African Sun Media
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2023-09-08
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1991260199

The research represented in this volume, and in the series as a whole, is intended to provide critical analyses and findings that can underpin the development of language policies, practice guides and other resources that support a fair and accessible legal system. However, this will also require well-developed teaching and research programmes, so it is our intention that this volume will continue to support the growth of forensic linguistics in Southern African universities and nurture the next generation of scholars dedicated to forensic and legal linguistics. This aim will be supported by the newly formed African Association of Forensic and Legal Linguists (AAFLL), which will help to coordinate the study of forensic linguistics in Africa. This book series, Studies in Forensic and Legal Linguistics in Africa and Beyond, Volumes I, II, III and IV, continues to play an important role in bringing African forensic linguistic scholarship to a wider audience, while simultaneously promoting the field amongst academic and legal institutions in Africa.

Routledge International Handbook of Police Ethnography

Routledge International Handbook of Police Ethnography
Author: Jenny Fleming
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 683
Release: 2023-01-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 100081291X

Ethnography has a long history in the humanities and social sciences and has provided the base line in the field of police studies for over 60 years. We have recently witnessed a resurgence in ethnographic practice among police scholars, and this Handbook is a response to that revival. Students and academics are returning to the ethnography arena and the study of police in situ to explain the evocative worlds of the police. The list of ethnographic sites is vast and all have fed the rejuvenation of ethnographic endeavour. Together they suggest innovation, theoretical depth, broad geographical boundaries, multi-site experiments, and multi-disciplinarity, all of which are central to the exploration of police and policing in the twenty-first century. This Handbook encapsulates the revival of police ethnography by exploring its multidisciplinary field and cataloguing the ongoing ethnographic work. It offers an original and international contribution to the field of police studies and research methods, providing a comprehensive and overarching guide to police ethnography. We see the previous classics in every page and still note the influence of the early ethnographers. At the same time, we see the innovative breadth and diversity of these narratives. The aim of this Handbook is to highlight the mosaic that is police ethnography at a point in time and note with pleasure its contribution to the field once more. Ethnography may be messy, difficult, and at times uncooperative, but its results offer a unique insight into the perspectives of people and organisations that can hide in plain sight. An accessible and compelling read, this Handbook will provide a sound and essential reference source for academics, researchers, students, and practitioners engaged in police and criminal justice studies.