دِراسةٌ تداوليَّة اجتماعيَّة للقوة في مقابلات مختارة للشرطة الامريكيَّة

A Sociopragmatic Study of Power in Selected American Police Interviews

The present study scrutinizes power as an influential social variable in three selected American police interviews. Power has been examined in classroom discourse, political speeches, courtroom interactions, and other sorts of discourse. However, investigating power in American police interviews has not been conducted, particularly from a sociopragmatic perspective. Thus, the present study attempts to bridge this gap by identifying power strategies and their manifestations in the data under scrutiny.
The study aims at identifying power-practicing and power-resisting strategies, power influence on interaction, most and least exploited power strategies by both police interviewers and suspects, the differences between the various power strategies, and the devices that manifest each power strategy.
In association with the aims, the study sets out five hypotheses: (1) each police interview involves unique strategies for power practice and power resistance, (2) power influences the choice of these strategies, (3) recycling topics is the most frequent while minimization is the least utilized strategy by police interviewers, in contrast, denial is the most dominant whereas mitigation is the least used by suspects, (4) significant differences can be noticed among the various power strategies, and (5) each power strategy is manifested in discourse by specific devices.
To achieve the aims and verify these hypotheses, the study develops a model consisting of two layers for the analysis. The first layer is composed of power strategies that serve as an umbrella for the model. The second layer is based on Fairclough’s (1992, 2015) and Cotterill’s (2003) models and is composed of the devices that manifest power strategies in discourse. A mixed-method approach is used in data analysis by means of the Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Based on the findings, the study concludes that: (1) all power strategies are utilized in the data, except that no comment strategy has been found absent in George Huguely’s police interview, (2) power plays a significant role in the selection of these strategies and the degree of focus on one strategy more than others, (3) topic control has recorded the highest rank whereas maximization has achieved the lowest in terms of police power strategies, in contrast, denial is the most dominant strategy whereas no comment is the least used in regards to suspect power strategies, (4) there are no statistically significant differences between power strategies in impact, which suggests that all power strategies are effectively used, and (5) five devices are reciprocally utilized by both police interviewers and suspects to manifest their strategies including questions, politeness, formulation, topic management, and hedges. All the hypotheses of the study are verified except that the third is partially valid, and the fourth is invalid. The study ends with some recommendations and suggestions for further studies.