I Know What Happened Establishing Epistemic Stance and Status in Police Interrogations

• In Event: 298 - Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Paper Session and Business Meeting. New Directions in EM/CA Research

Abstract

The following paper examines formulations of epistemic stance and status used by police in the course of conducting interrogations. The portrayal of knowledge, often in the form of deception, is seen as a fundamental element in interrogation methods such as the Reid Technique. While deception is allowed as a legally permitted strategy, it is done so under the belief that such deception will facilitate an admission from a guilty person who realizes that the evidence exists to establish his or her guilt. However, little has been done to examine the conversational mechanisms of epistemic stance and status that can compel a confession from one who is not guilty. This paper examines how the structures of talk when using epistemic stance and status can result in such an outcome not (only) through psychological pressure, but observable conversational structures.

Author

• Gary C. David, Bentley University