Skip Navigation

Applied Linguistics 2007 28(1):87-112; doi:10.1093/applin/aml050
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary data
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Nakane, I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© Oxford University Press 2007

Problems in Communicating the Suspect's Rights in Interpreted Police Interviews

Ikuko Nakane

The University of Melbourne


  Abstract

At first glance, communicating a suspect's rights in police interviews appears to be a straightforward task. However, it is more complex than it appears. In particular, for suspects who come from different cultural backgrounds or legal systems and who rely on interpreters in police interviews, ensuring a thorough understanding of their rights and appropriately invoking these rights can be difficult. This paper examines police interviews in which Japanese native-speaker suspects are interviewed by English speaking police officers through interpreters and attempts to identify problems in the processes in which the suspects’ rights are communicated through the interpreters. Three issues will be addressed: problematic turn construction; the treatment of a follow-up comprehension check question; and the interference of interpreters’ understanding of the rights of suspects. Suggestions will then be given for improvement of caution delivery through interpreting in criminal investigation. The study concerns a number of areas—forensic linguistics, translating and interpreting studies, and conversation analysis—and demonstrates the significance of an interdisciplinary approach to addressing and understanding problems in interpreter-mediated discourse in legal settings.

Accepted for publication 1 November 2005.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.