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‘It's Always English in the Cop Shop’: Accounts of Minority Language Use in the Criminal Justice System in Wales

The authors identify that whilst minority language use in criminal justice settings may be explained with reference to oppression, narrators’ accounts are also fashioned purposefully. This is to promote a particular identity and, in light of an adversarial understanding of the criminal justice process, to position criminal justice agencies in a negative light. The articles extend existing knowledge about language services in the criminal justice system beyond the established debates around linguistic oppression. Through a rigorous analysis of narrator’s accounts, oppression is identified as operating within as well as between languages.