‘From where we're sat …’
Negotiating narrative transformation through interaction in police interviews with suspects
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17811404 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alison May (0000-0002-8757-8053, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2008-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Text and Talk (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1860-7330 • E-ISSN: 1860-7349 |
| Publisher | De Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/text.2008.016 |
| OpenAlex | W2012527305 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 10 |
This paper examines narratives told in police interviews through a case-study approach with three interviews from a small corpus of twenty. The interviews are conducted by different police interviewers in different parts of England. Narratives given by suspects in initial storytelling episodes are examined along with negotiating activity that develops from this start point. We see how lay narratives are transformed into institutionalized and evidential ones and how content is reshaped through negotiation that challenges and transforms narrative material. Negotiations over role, responsibility, resistance, participation, and assessment of evidential value of story elements occur. This activity sometimes recontextualizes (Sarangi 1998; Linell and Sarangi 1998; Iedema and Wodak 1999) and transforms the start-point narrative, giving it evidential value; that is, value in relation to institutional and generic goals of establishing the facts of an alleged crime, for use in any future trial. Transformation is therefore seen as a negotiated (re)construction and recontextualization of narrative detail, part of the (re)productive work of institutional talk that produces an altered reality and responsibility that orients to the institututional rather than individual perspective
Linguistics · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Negotiation · Social science · Sociology · Storytelling · Computer Science · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Social Psychology
Interviewing
The Discursive Construction of Evidence in Police Interviews
Language of Police Interviews
The Language of Police Interviews
“I never said that”
The fabric of law-in-action
Doing narrative analysis from a narratives-as-practices perspective
Blame Anticipation in Personal Narratives of Rape
Ethnography and narrative
Deconstructing competing courtroom narratives
The (In)Authenticity of Simulated Talk
You Don't Have to Answer”
Increasing mediators’ perceived responsibility
"What happened?" From talk to text in police interrogations
You son of a perverse rebellious woman
Personal Narratives and Self-Transformation in Postindustrial Societies
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,07 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2025 (15) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |