Citation

Kidwell M. J. Pragmat. 2021; 178: 3-17.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pragma.2021.02.022

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article demonstrates how the design and positioning of citizens' account solicitations in traffic stops (e.g., "What did I do?") provide resources for citizens to show, and officers to see, their stance toward and willingness to align with the business of the encounter. With design, citizens use 'self', 'other', 'neutral', and 'self-other' formulations that allocate responsibility for the stop in ways that support or challenge the stop's legitimacy. With positioning, they show their willingness to align or not to the business of the encounter. Stance and alignment work interdependently with the account solicitation as a dispreferred initiating action (Robinson and Bolden, 2010) to enhance, or aggravate, its mitigated or unmitigated character, with consequences for citizens' experience of being policed. This research uses the method of conversation analysis and draws from a large collection of police dashboard camera videos from several American policing agencies in addition to several videos posted on Youtube.

Language: en

Keywords

Account solicitations; Accounts; Action formation; Alignment; Police-citizen interaction; Stance