Police delivery of the opt-out procedure for children’s court evidence: evidence of inadequate language awareness

Abstract

Drawing on unique observational data from police training with child volunteers, this study evaluates the linguistic patterns used by officers for transmitting complex, legally-binding information to children during the opt-out procedure (which determines how children’s evidence is presented in court). It is shown that while the officers realise the information is difficult to explain and understand, they lack the skills to monitor and manage their linguistic choices and to respond to the children’s needs. Van Lier’s model of levels of language awareness is used to show where the problems arise, and it is proposed that introducing language awareness into police-child interview training could be empowering for officers. With greater control over the impact of their discourse, officers could materially improve the quality of the opt-out procedure delivery.

KEYWORDS:

• Child witnesses
• police interviews
• discourse
• language awareness
• 
law courts

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented in the Language Awareness in Professional Communication panel at the Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice (ALAPP) 2018 Conference (Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University). I wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and special issue editors for their constructive feedback on various drafts. I am particularly indebted to Professor Alison Wray for her extensive and detailed guidance throughout. I also gratefully acknowledge Vivienne Hutchinson’s hard work and time in transcribing the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle Aldridge-Waddon

Michelle Aldridge-Waddon is a Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University. Her main interests are in child language acquisition, communication disorders, forensic linguistics and psycholinguistics. Her particular focus is on the linguistic experiences of vulnerable people (children, rape victims and people with a disability) and their interactions with professionals especially within the legal system. She is involved in police investigative interview training and has organised conferences in child language acquisition, forensic linguistics and cognitive linguistics.