Distortions of the police interview process revealed by video-tape

Authors

  • John Gibbons Sydney University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v3i2.289

Keywords:

Police interviews, miscommunication, Aboriginal.

Abstract

This article uses transcript of a police interview with an Aboriginal suspect to show, firstly, the dangers of interviewing non-native speakers without the help of an interpreter and secondly that non-native responses cannot be taken to have their face value meaning.

Author Biography

  • John Gibbons, Sydney University
    JOHN GIBBONS is a senior lecturer in the Linguistics Department at Sydney University, where he mostly teaches Applied Linguistics. Major interests are language and the law and bilingualism, and the intersection of these in language and disadvantage. He is editor of Language and the Law (1994), has published a number of articles on Forensic Linguistics, and regularly appears in court as an expert witness.

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Published

1996-12-01

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (1996)

Section

Articles

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

For information regarding our Open Access policy, click here.

How to Cite

Gibbons, J. (1996). Distortions of the police interview process revealed by video-tape. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 3(2), 289-298. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v3i2.289