Coerced Confessions: The Discourse of Bilingual Police Interrogations

This series contributes to the development of new approaches in the sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological study of social issues and social problems. The series contains critical analyses of language and power in social processes and highlights substantive, theoretical, and methodological dimensions of sociolinguistic research. It will be of use in both undergraduate and graduate teaching.

The book presents a discourse analysis of police interrogations involving U.S. Hispanic suspects accused of crimes. The study is unique in that it concentrates on interrogations involving suspects whose first language is not English and police officers who often have a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish. The volume examines the pitfalls of using police officers as interpreters at custodial interrogations.