"Hey you c'me here!": Subjectivization, resistance, and the interpellative violence of self-generated police-citizen encounters

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 159-179

  Shon, Phillip Chong H O ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0008814069     PISSN: 09528059     EISSN: 15728722     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/a:1008940412437     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (110)

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5. See D. Black, "The Social Organization of Arrest", Stanford Law Review 23 (1971), 1087-1111;
6. supra n. 1;
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24. S. Herbert, Policing Space: Territoriality and the LAPD (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996);
25. W. K. Muir, Police: Street Corner Politicians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977);
26. R. Uviller, "The Unworthy Victim: Police Discretion in the Credibility Call", Law and Contemporary-Problems 47 (1984), 15-33;
27. J. V. Maanen, "The Asshole", in Policing: A View From the Street, eds. J. V. Maanen and P. K. Manning (Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear Publishing, 1978), 221-238.
28. Black and Reiss, supra n. 5
29. P. K. Manning, Symbolic Communication: Signifying Calls and the Police Response (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988).
30. E. A. Schegloff, "Confirming Allusions: Toward an Empirical Account of Action", American Journal of Sociology 102 (1996), 166.
31. S. Mastrofski and R. Parks, "Improving Observational Studies of Police", Criminology 28 (1990), 476.
32. D. W. Maynard, "Language, Interaction, and Social Problems", Social Problems 35 (1988), 311-334.
33. Of power, Foucault writes that "it produces reality," which in turn produces the "domains of objects and rituals of truth" (p. 194). Furthermore, the various human sciences (including criminology) that have the root "psycho," he writes, owe their existence to this "procedure of individualization." The constructed subject, along with her entailing knowledge, is an effect of this power, as a form of discipline. Thus, power, embodied in spatial, temporal, and bodily exercises, transforms the individual into knowledge, which function as the beginning of the subject behind the "case." Foucault's analysis of power is non-static and multi-dimensional: it is a power/knowledge relation and micro-physics of operation. He writes that power is "exercised rather than possessed," that power is the "effect of its strategic positions"; furthermore, it is not merely exercised but its intersection - in and through the subjects of power - is taken into account in struggles and resistance. Clearly, in Foucault's thesis, there is room for agency. His analysis of the physical manifestations of power in its micro-physics/techniques is meticulously itemized. However, since his thesis concerns the interplay between power/knowledge and (as) discourse, it would be worthwhile to examine the microlinguistic exercise of power. For example, rather than leaving the inner workings of disciplinary discourses to theoretical speculations, it would be a fertile burden to examine the "utterance by utterance" analysis of the institutions which normalize, control, and discipline. See M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage, 1977).
34. See N. Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language (New York: Longman Group, 1995);
35. C. West and A. Garcia, "Conversational Shift Work: A Study of Topical Transitions Between Women and Men", Social Problems 35 (1988), 449-473.
36. See J. R. Bergmann, "Veiled Morality: Notes on Discretion in Psychiatry", in Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, eds. P. Drew and J. Heritage (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 137-162;
37. E. Boyd, "Bureaucratic Authority in the 'Company of Equals': The Interactional Management of Medical Peer Interview", American Sociological Review 63 (1998), 200-224;
38. S. Fisher and A. D. Todd, "Friendly Persuasion: Negotiating Decisions to Use Oral Contraceptives", in Discourse and Institutional Authority: Medicine, Education, and Law, eds. S. Fisher and A. D. Dodd (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1986), 1-25;
39. C. Heath, "The Delivery and Reception of Diagnostic News in the General-Practice Consultation", in Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, eds. P. Drew and J. Heritage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 235-267);
40. for media studies see S. Clayman, "Footing in the Achievement of Neutrality: The Case of News-Interview Discourse", in Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, eds. P Drew and J. Heritage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 163-198;
41. S. Clayman and A. Reisner, "Gatekeeping in Action: Editorial Conferences and Assessments of Newsworthiness", American Sociological Review 63 (1998), 178-199;
42. and for mediation sessions see A. Garcia, "Dispute Resolution Without Disputing: How the Interactional Organization of Mediation Hearings Minimizes Argumentative Talk", American Sociological Review 56 (1991), 818-835;
43. D. Greatbatch and R. Dingwall, "Argumentative Talk in Divorce Mediation Sessions", American Sociological Review 62 (1998), 151-170.
44. P. Drew and J. Heritage, Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, eds. P Drew and J. Heritage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
45. J. Whalen, D. H. Zimmerman, and M. R. Whalen, "When Words Fail: A Single Case Analysis", Social Problems 35 (1988), 335-360;
46. M. R. Whalen and D. H. Zimmerman, "Sequential and Institutional Contexts in Calls for Help", Social Psychology Quarterly 50 (1987), 172-185;
47. D. H. Zimmerman, "The Interactional Organization of Calls for Emergency Assistance", in Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, eds. P Drew and J. Heritage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 418-469.
48. See J. M. Conley and W. M. O'Barr, Just Words: Law, Language, and Power (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998);
49. J. M. Atkinson and P. Drew, Order in Court: The Organization of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings (London: Macmillian, 1979);
50. J. A. Holstein, Court Ordered Insanity: Interpretive Practice and Involuntary Commitment (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1993);
51. G. M. Matoesian, Reproducing Rape: Domination Through Talk in the Courtroom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
52. Supra n. 5.
53. D. H. Bayley and C. D. Shearing, "The Future of Policing", Law and Society Review 30 (1996), 585-606;
54. D. H. Bayley and E. Bittner, "Learning the Skills of Policing", Law and Contemporary Problems 47 (1984), 35-59;
55. E. Cumming, I. Cumming and L. Edell, "Policeman as Philosopher, Guide, and Friend", Social Problems 12 (1967), 278-286;
56. F. F. Furstenburg and C. F. Wellford, "Calling the Police: The Evaluation of Police Service", Law and Society Review 7 (1973), 393-406;
57. E. W. McNulty, "Generating Common Sense Knowledge Among Police Officers", Symbolic Interaction 17 (1994), 281-294;
58. P. Patch and B. A. Arrigo, "Police Officer Attitudes and Use of Discretion in Situations Involving the Mentally Ill: The Need to Narrow the Focus", International Journal of Law and Psychiatry XX (1998), 1-13;
59. S. O. White, "A Perspective on Police Professionalization", Law and Society Review 7 (1972), 61-85.
60. S. H. Adams, "Statement Analysis: What Do Suspects' Words Really Reveal?", FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 65 (1996), 12-20;
61. J. Baldwin, "Police Interview Techniques: Establishing Truth or Proof?" The British Journal of Criminology 33 (1993), 325-352;
62. I. C. H. Clare and G. H. Gudjonsson, "Interrogative Suggestibility, Confabulation, and Acquiescence in People With Mild Learning Disabilities (Mental Handicap): Implications for Reliability During Police Interrogations", British Journal of Clinical Psychology 32 (1993), 295-301;
63. R. P. Fisher, E. R. Geiselman, and D. S. Raymond, "Critical Analysis of Police Interview Techniques", Journal of Police Science and Administration 15 (1987), 177-185;
64. G. Gudjonsson, The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions, and Testimony (Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 1992);
65. F. E. Inbau, J. E. Reid, and J. P. Buckley, Criminal Investigation and Confessions, 3rd edn. (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1986);
66. S.M. Kassin, "The Psychology of Confession Evidence", American Psychologist 52 (1997), 221-233;
67. S. M. Kassin and K. McNall, "Police Interrogations and Confessions: Communicating Promises and Threats by Pragmatic Implication", Law and Human Behavior 15 (1991), 233-251;
68. R. A. Leo, "Miranda's Revenge: Police Interrogation as a Confidence Game", Law and Society Review 30 (1996), 259-288;
69. M. McConville and J. Baldwin, "The Role of Interrogation in Crime Discovery and Conviction", British Journal of Criminology 22 (1982), 165-175;
70. S. Moston, G. M. Stephenson, and T. M. Williams, "The Effects of Case Characteristics on Suspect Behavior During Police Questioning", British Journal of Criminology 32 (1992), 23-40;
71. A. J. Pinizzotto and G. D. Deshazor, "Interviewing Erratic Subjects", FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 66 (1997), 1-5;
72. D. Rabon, Investigative Discourse Analysis (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1996);
73. R. F. Royal and S. R. Schutt, Gentle Art of Interviewing and Interrogation (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1976);
74. for a combination of interrogation techniques and nonverbal communicative aspects, see J. L. Waltman, "Nonverbal Communication in Interrogation: Some Applications", Journal of Police Science and Administration 11 (1983), 166-169.
75. L. Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971), 170.
76. Supra n. 20, at 172.
77. Ibid., at 173.
78. Ibid., at 174.
79. J. Butler, Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (New York: Routledge, 1997), 25.
80. Supra n. 20 at 176.
81. The word "command" is chosen because while "Hey you there!" may appear to be an interjection, when uttered by a police officer, it is a forceful imperative: stop or otherwise. Butler's summary of Althusser's account of interpellation then begins to indicate its "fabulousness" when she writes that "The subject need not always turn around in order to be constituted as a subject, and the discourse that inaugurates the subject need not take the form of a voice at all." Supra n. 24, at 31.
82. See McNulty, Supra n. 18, at 281-294.
83. Ibid., at 281-294.
84. S. Žižek, Enjoy Your Symptom!: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out (New York: Routledge, 1992), 186.
85. Supra n. 24, at 33.
86. M. Bracher, Lacan, Discourse, and Social Change: A Psychoanalytic Cultural Criticism (Ithca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 62;
87. see also B. Arrigo, "Transcarceration: Notes on a Psychoanalytically informed Theory of Social Practice in the Criminal Justice and Mental Health Systems", Crime, Law, and Social Change: An International Journal 27/1 (1997), 31-48.
88. D. Milovanovic, "Lacan's Four Discourses, Chaos, and Cultural Criticism in Law", Studies in Psychoanalytic Theory 2 (1993), 3-23.
89. Supra n. 32, at 53.
90. J. S. L. Lee, Jacques Lacan (Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1990), 198.
91. Supra n. 29, at 3-23.
92. Supra n. 30, at 65.
93. D. Milovanovic, Sociology of Law, 2nd edn. (Albany: Harrow and Heston, 1994).
94. There are some who will dispute this point and assign the status junk mail to bills. However, if bills are regarded as junk mail and given the full mail treatment, its consequences would be disastrous: I cannot sincerely believe that most people throw away their bills. I would think that those who do treat bills as junk mail are more of exceptions to the rule.
95. Again it could be debated that love letters are not desirable things if sent by the wrong person. Similarly, invitations might as well be junk mail if it is from persons we hate. But my point is that in general those types of mail are valuable things to most people. I am personally unaware of people who throw money away in garbage cans.
96. H. Sacks, "You Want to Find Out if Anybody Really Does Care", in Talk and Social Organization, ed. G. Button and J. R. E. Lee (Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters, 1987), 217-225.
97. E. Bittner, "The Policeman on Skid-Row: A Study in Peacekeeping", American Sociological Review 32 (1967), 699-715.
98. D. J. Hilton, "The Social Context of Reasoning: Conversational Inference and Rational Judgement", Psychological Bulletin 118 (1995), 245-271.
99. See Boyd, supra n. 13, at 200-224.
100. M. Heller, "Language Choice, Social Institutions, and Symbolic Domination", Language in Society 24 (1995), 373-405.
101. B. A. Arrigo, "Towards a Theory of Punishment in the Psychiatric Courtroom: On Language, Law, and Lacan", Journal of Crime and Justice XIX (1996), 15-32.
102. Supra n. 34, at 149.
103. B. A. Arrigo, "Legal Discourse and the Disordered Criminal Defendant: Contributions from Psychoanalytic Semiotics and Chaos Theory", Legal Studies Forum XVIII (1994), 93-112;
104. see also B. A. Arrigo, Madness, Language, and Law (New York: Harrow and Heston, 1993).
105. D. Milovanovic, "The Decentralized Subject in Law: Contributions of Topology, Psychoanalytic Semiotics, and Chaos Theory", Studies in Psychoanalytic Theory 3 (1994), 93-127.
106. D. Milovanovic, "The Postmodern Turn: Lacan, Psychoanalytic Semiotics, and the Construction of Subjectivity in Law", Emory International Law Review 8 (1994), 67-98.
107. Supra n. 34.
108. Two words (this, that) fall under the broad category of indexical expressions. Indexical expressions have three usages: deictic, anaphoric, and meta-phoric. Deictic reference usually involves gestural movements which point to an object; anaphora involves referring to a part of the discourse already mentioned; meta-phoric expressions refer to "something that is evoked by whatever is indicated or deictically referred to" (for a fuller discussion of indexicals and anaphora, see G. M. Green, Pragmatics and Natural Language Understanding (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1996), see chapter 2. For Levinson deixis pertains to the relationship between two main components: language and context. Thus, interpretation of utterances must integrate the "context of utterance" or speech event. Since deixis involves gestures, the traditional categories of deixis can be somewhat anticipated: person, place, and time. Levinson adds two more categories: discourse deixis and social deixis. In the traditional categories of deixis, the key points are roles of the participants, distance, and time of utterance. Thus concerning roles, person reference can be first, second, or third person, each reference bearing on the speaker and addressee relationship; with place deixis, the distance is either "proximal" or "distal" from the speaker or addressee; with time deixis, it is the relative moment of utterance between the interlocuters.
109. See S. Levinson, Pragmatics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 61-62. The usage of expressions already embedded within a discourse is the domain of discourse deixis. It can refer to a "chunk of discourse" or refer to that same "chunk of discourse" as a prior referent. Social deixis on the other hand is concerned with speech and context of the "social situation." Meaning and grammar of utterances as they relate to the "concrete social context" is the broad scope of social deixis. Deixis thus far understood connotes a teleological character: reference is hinted in the absolute (absolute referent). But the last two deictic usages point to a nebulous zone of reference, not in terms of anteceding referents contained in the discourse but that which lies within the utterance, yet somehow transcendent. There is then a crucial distinction between effect and procedure.
110. Names in psychoanalysis occupy a crucial position. As Freud initially observed, utterance of unspeakable names produces neurotic and obsessional symptoms which can even result in death. For Lacan, the critical name that is of significance is the Name-of-the-Father. If the subject does not identify with the Father's Law (foreclosure), the anchoring point of speech is lost: psychosis. In Lacanian theory, the father's name is the phallic signifier which governs the entire signifying chain: the father's 'no' becomes the subject's introduction into the symbolic world of language and culture. For the psychotic it is the bond between he and sociality which is absent. For a discussion of psychosis and father's law, see D. Caudill, "'Name-of-the-Father' and the Logic of Psychosis: Lacan's Law and Ours", Legal Studies Forum 16 (1993), 421-438.