Rights Communication
Subtitle: Language and Power in the Police Station
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: December 26, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780230013315
Subjects: Crime & criminology; Discourse analysis; Jurisprudence & General Issues; Sociolinguistics; Language Arts & Disciplines; Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy; Language; Communication; General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication; Criminal justice, Administration of; Police questioning; Police training; United States
Description: People explain things to each other every day using both writing and speech. Communicating Rights examines the creativity which underpins everyday explanation and its power to influence lives. The rights communication in question occurs in police custody, where explanations shape crucial decisions. Data examined illustrate that when speakers and writers transform texts for others through explanation they work hard to convey meaning. They try to simplify words and grammar and consider the other's perspective and communicative needs. However, although explaining rights seems to be concerned with simply relaying facts it does much more. This apparently tightly-regulated, goal-oriented talk is used by both police officers and detainees to reassure, persuade, distract, challenge, empathise, learn, influence confidence, present identity, prospect intentions, show affiliation, make suggestions and bring formality. The book shows that analysts, institutions, indeed anyone who explains to others, might usefully recognize that their explanations do more than simply convey facts.