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Article published In:
Language and Dialogue
Vol. 11:2 (2021) ► pp.200–222

A negotiation analysis of risk assessment in community correction from the perspective of exchange structure

| Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
| Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

Community correction, as a new form of crime punishment towards restorative justice, is being widely practiced in China. This paper, adopting an ethnographic method, explores the exchange structure of risk assessment in community correction by analyzing a dataset of 12 assessments. The study finds that the risk assessment discourse is replete with the informing exchange (formulized as K1^(K2f)) and eliciting exchange (formulized as K2^K1). It further discusses how the canonical structures are invalidated and what variant structures could address the issue. These findings suggest that judicial social workers need to raise their linguistic awareness and offenders need more effective linguistic choices in order to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of risk assessment.

Keywords: community correction, risk assessment discourse, SFL, negotiation, exchange structure, move analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Risk assessment, community correction and restorative justice
  • 3.Negotiation: The exchange structure system
  • 4.Fieldwork and data collection
  • 5.Exchange structures of risk assessment discourse
    • 5.1Two canonical exchange structures
      • 5.1.1The exchange structure of K1^(K2f)
      • 5.1.2The exchange structure of K2^K1
    • 5.2Evaluation of effectiveness of canonical exchange structures
      • 5.2.1The ineffective pattern of K1^(K2f)
      • 5.2.2Refusal to communicate in K2^K1 exchange
    • 5.3Two suggested variant exchange structures
      • 5.3.1The variant structure of K1^(K2f)
      • 5.3.2The variant structure of K2^K1
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 18 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00093.yua
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