This thesis examines the spoken and written discourse of uniformed British
police officers. Utilising a rhetorical and discursive analysis, the study considers
firstly how officers use their considerable powers of discretion to deal informally
with crime and criminal incidents. Focusing on a form of discretion that the police
refer to as cuffing, two specific discursive practices were identified as being used
by police to informally resolve crime: these were the giving of suitable advice and
the that's civil device. The second part of the study was concerned with the
formal prosecution process and how officers construct prosecution case files.
Specifically, how they reformulate and precis evidence in 'domestic' violence
cases to assist a Crown prosecutor in making a charging decision. In this
normally confidential and non-public discourse, officers rely upon a very narrow
range of linguistic devices and speech genres; these are combined with an
equally limited array of gendered stereotypes and legal myths, with the result that
prosecution cases can be 'subverted' (Sacks 1995) and thus discontinued. In
both studies, the doing of policing was consistent with two occupational
ideologies that are influential within police operational subcultures: the ideology
of pragmatism and the ideology of self-preservation. The findings raise concerns
about some of the working practices of the police.Economic Science and Research Counci
