Table of Contents

Introduction. Identities, indexicality, and ideology: victim/survivors and police officer storying of domestic violence; 1. Domestic violence, violence against women, and patriarchy; 2. Toward the recreation of a field of indexicality: domestic violence, social meaning, and ideology; 3. Storying the victim/survivor: identity, domestic violence, and discourses of agency; 4. Storying policing: identities of police and domestic violence; Conclusions. Toward a reconceptualization of domestic violence; References; Index.

Promotional Information

Drawing on data from interviews with domestic violence victims and police officers, Andrus analyses the narratives of their interactions.

About the Author

Jennifer Andrus is an Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah, where she teaches courses on discourse analysis, legal rhetoric, and gender and rhetoric. Dr Andrus's research for the last decade has been on domestic violence and the Anglo-American law of evidence and law enforcement.

Reviews

'Ground-breaking and thought-provoking: Jennifer Andrus presents a compelling analysis of the narratives of domestic violence by victims/survivors and police officers, revealing discourses and social meanings that maintain and support this violence.' Diana Eades, Adjunct Professor, University of New England
'This book is an elegant and clearly written account grounded on the experiences and vivid language used by fifty participants in domestic violence cases. This interview-based research compares side by side the responses and feelings of both the victims/survivors and the police, concluding that there is a need to have more fluency between victims and police interviewers, for the police to believe the survivors, and for the survivors to have more trust in the police. One strength of the book is its many direct quotes about the survivors' struggles to articulate their physical and mental fears, and the shame and even guilt that is generated from their experiences.' Roger W. Shuy, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, Georgetown University
'This work is adequately referenced and indexed, and suitable for libraries serving departments with graduate programs in counseling, criminal justice, criminology, psychology, social work, or sociology ... Recommended.' R. T. Sigler, Choice