The co-construction of legally relevant stories in investigative interviews of us police officers involved in fatal shootings

Lukic, Mihaila 2024. The co-construction of legally relevant stories in investigative interviews of us police officers involved in fatal shootings. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

A number of recent reports into the investigations of police use of deadly force in the US have identified the apparent biases of investigators in favour of the officer(s) involved. More specifically, there is evidence to suggest that in forensic interviews in these cases, investigators ask “easy” questions, or – even more concerningly - ones that lead the interviewed officer toward answers that support their defence. This study provides an indepth linguistic analysis of the discourse of such interviews in order to examine the extent to which the stories and their themes are co-constructed by the interviewers. This study analyzes the language of six interviews of officers involved in fatal shootings in the US. Taking an exploratory approach, it first establishes the what of the stories by identifying the key themes of the interviews and how they relate to the legal parameters of justifiable use-of-force. A thematic analysis of the data identified that the overarching themes relate to the high levels of fear that the officer experienced, the low level of agency that they perceived they had, and them being and behaving like a “reasonable” officer. The how of the study involved an exploration of the way that the key story themes are co-constructed through (1) forensic interviewing techniques, and (2) the formation of stories. Discourse analysis was used to conduct a line-by-line analysis of short extracts which demonstrate the development of key themes. This analysis revealed a general pro-defence bias on the part of the investigators. The findings of this study are concerning as they further evidence the existence of an unfair investigation process in police shooting cases. Whilst exploratory, this study has important implications regarding methods of safeguarding from such bias. It also indicates the urgent need for further research in the area.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PE English
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 January 2025
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2025 17:52
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/175161

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