This conversation analytic research uses police interviews as data in investigating the role of laughter by police officers and suspects in managing aspects of police interviews. Laughter in the institutional context of the police interview has not been subject to extensive researchin this field, unlike that of ordinary conversation. The two-tiered approach to the analysis finds the basic actions performed by the laughter (such as in response to a ridiculous comment in the prior turn) are uniform across participants. Attention is then given to the way it is used, on a secondary level, in differing ways by the participants. The suspect uses laughter to support his/her position, for instance that of innocence, or to deflectcontradiction of the officer. On the part of the officer, laughter is used to frame a ‘time out’ from the constraints he/she is operating under. This highlights the tailoring of the way laughter is used according to the role played in the police interview.
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