142
Popular Culture Review
For this study, I used a statistical test of cross tabulation and chi-square.
Cross tabulation was relevant since I was interested to determine, in tabular form,
the relationship between two or more categorical variables (George and Mallory
94). Categorical variables give us an either-or approach to our analysis (e.g.,
gender: male, female; ethnicity: Asian, Hispanic). I set out to determine if
specific variables were in any way correlated with language \sed by police
officers in COPS.
Findings
Several findings were most salient in this study. First, I found that there
was a relationship between the type of language that officers used and the length
of time that they were employed in a given law enforcement unit. Second, there
was a relationship between language style and type of crime involved. Regarding
the former, I found that new officers, those employed from one to five years, used
commands more often than did middle-career officers, that is, those employed
from six to ten years. As for type of crime and style of language, I observed that
officers used commands when dealing with severe crime, questions with moderate
crimes, and statements when confronting mild forms of crime. There were not
enough instances of language used that involved officers of longer tenure, that is,
ten years or more. Regarding language type and type of crime, officers used
commands more often than statements and questions when confronting suspects
initially. This situation might be attributed to the fact that there were more
instances of severe crimes (e.g., robbery with gun, high-speed car chase, breaking
and entering into a residence, vehicle theft) than those considered moderate (e.g.,
narcotics use, stolen goods, driving without a license) or low (e.g., noise from
neighbors, loitering, littering). We had to discard the variable of gender since
there were not enough instances of women officers responding to law-breaking
events in COPS. In the few instances where women were on patrol, there was no
difference in the way women used language and the type of crime events when
compared to men. The question that arises is this: What message can I draw from
these findings?
Discussion
This view of communication and its relationship to crime is similar to
that advanced by Radford et al and the concept of audience design. By audience
design, speakers assess the sociolinguistic characteristics of addressees and adapt
their speech to conform to these characteristics (57). This view of language use
seems relevant here in that police officers, in selecting a style of language commands, questions, statements- took into account the situation that they
encountered (e.g., high speed chase, narcotic sales, stolen vehicles) and used the
style of language appropriate to that situation. This view is also similar to
Finnegan’s notion of “situation of use” (350). It is as if the officers surmised that