CREATING ORDER IN THE BUREAUCRATIC REGISTER An analysis of suicide crime scene investigations in Southern Mexico

    Authors

    B. M. Reyes-Foster

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Crit. Discourse Stud.

    Keywords

    critical discourse analysis; ethnography; police report discourse; crime; scene investigations; suicide; Mexico; Communication

    Abstract

    Crime scene investigation reports, like other kids of official bureaucratic documents, serve an important purpose in the functioning of modern states. This article examines crime scene investigation reports from a city in southeastern Mexico pseudonymously called La Ciudad. The article combines textual discourse analysis of police suicide investigation reports with ethnographic analysis of police investigative practices to ask, how do law enforcement documents showcase the interactions between law enforcement agents and citizens? In what way can ethnographic analysis highlight and supplement the strengths and limitations of law enforcement documents as prisms of social reality? The complex and contested relationship between representatives of a Mexican law enforcement agency and the citizenry it claims to protect is visible in the documents it produces. The ethnographic material further deepens the reader's understanding of the ways in which law enforcement agents and common citizens form relationships based on negotiation and distrust.

    Journal Title

    Critical Discourse Studies

    Volume

    11

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2014

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    377

    Last Page

    396

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000343215300001

    ISSN

    1740-5904

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