Glushak on Investigator as Educator in Russian and English Fiction Detectives @mgimo_en

Vasiliy Glushak, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, has published Investigator as Educator in Russian and English Fiction Detectives. Here is the abstract.

Pedagogical influence on the suspect at the trial stage is one of the functions in the work of an investigator. The literature on legal pedagogy notes that pre-trial proceedings will be more successful if investigative actions are combined with educational influence on the suspect. Moreover, by exerting a pedagogical influence, the investigator tries to arouse in the defendant a sense of guilt for the committed illegal acts. Instructive and instructive speech actions of the investigator of an educational nature can be designated as didacticism, which is aimed at ensuring that the accused has a moral self-condemnation of his actions, an awareness of their danger to society [see. for example: Kikot et al. 2004: §16.3.].

The speech behavior of eight English and eight Russian detectives from the detective works of famous authors was subjected to linguistic analysis.

As units of analysis, only the contexts of communication between detectives and suspects were considered, as a result of which 4199 samples of the speech behavior of Russian investigators and 4517 statements of English detectives were identified. Each speech action was subjected to the procedure of identifying intentions that are significant for the professional communication of the investigator or detective, and their language markers. Among the significant components of the investigator’s professional communication, we have identified four illocutionary spheres, the actualization of which determines the specifics of the investigator’s communication with the interrogated person during the investigation of a particular case – Incentive, Emotionality, Contact, and Educational Activity.

In accordance with the objectives of the study, the illocutionary sphere Educational Activity in the speech behavior of investigators of Russian and English linguistic cultures was studied separately. In official communicative behavior, 22% of all identified speech samples belong to the methods of Educational Activity of the Russian investigator. In the professional communication of an English investigator, the indicators of the corresponding frame make up 9% of all markers of the Educational Activity frame.

Such a predominance of educational activities in the work of investigators in the Russian artistic detective discourse can be explained by the fact that in Russia this component of the professional activity of an investigator is emphasized both in the process of studying law at a university and in the regulatory documents of law enforcement agencies, more then in the UK.

The full text is not available for download from SSRN.