Narratives of Domestic Violence
Policing, Identity, and Indexicality

Drawing on data from interviews with domestic violence victims and police officers, Andrus analyses the narratives of their interactions.

Jennifer Andrus (Author)

9781108839525, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 November 2020

280 pages
23.7 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'This work is adequately referenced and indexed, and suitable for libraries serving departments with graduate programs in counseling, criminal justice, criminology, psychology, social work, or sociology … Recommended.' R. T. Sigler, Choice

Domestic violence is an intractable social problem that must be understood in order to be eradicated. Using theories of indexicality, identity, and narrative, Andrus presents data from interviews she conducted with victims and law enforcement, and analyses the narratives of their interactions and the identities that emerge. She gives insight into law enforcement views on violence, and prevalent misconceptions, in order to create resources to improve communication with victim/survivors. She also analyzes the ways in which identity emerges and is performed via narrative constructions of domestic violence and encounters between police and victim/survivors. By giving voice to the victims of domestic violence, this book provides powerful insights into the ways that ideology and commonplace misconceptions impact the social construction of domestic violence. It will be invaluable to students and researchers in discourse analysis, applied linguistics and forensic linguistics.

Introduction. Identities, indexicality, and ideology: victim/survivors and police officer storying of domestic violence
1. Domestic violence, violence against women, and patriarchy
2. Toward the recreation of a field of indexicality: domestic violence, social meaning, and ideology
3. Storying the victim/survivor: identity, domestic violence, and discourses of agency
4. Storying policing: identities of police and domestic violence
Conclusions. Toward a reconceptualization of domestic violence
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Domestic violence [JFFE3], Social issues & processes [JFF], Applied linguistics for ELT [EBAL]