Watson1983a

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Watson1983a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Watson1983a
Author(s) D. Rod Watson
Title The presentation of victim and motive in discourse: the case of police interrogations and interviews
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Police
Publisher
Year 1983
Language
City
Month
Journal Victimology
Volume 8
Number 1-2
Pages 31–52
URL
DOI
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Analyzes transcribed data excerpts from actual police interrogations of murder suspects and from a police interview with a witness to an alleged murder, focusing on the ways in which the offender's selection of descriptions for the victim (in addition to the description victim) can serve with various degrees of implicitness to make available a motive for the offense. The analysis is elaborated by considering the ways in which the descriptions of the victim may tie to a self-description of the offender. Also considered are the ways in which descriptions are organized relative to each other and are related to particular deeds/offenses through an allusion to motive. The ways in which the description of victim and motive may work to allocate and negotiate blame, guilt, responsibility, and, correlatively, mitigation or justification are discussed.

Notes

Reprinted in: Travers, M. & John F. Manzo, eds. (1997) Law in Action: Ethnomethodological & Conversation Analytic Approaches to Law. Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth Publishing: 77-97.