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Chapter 2 - Data and Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2020

Tim Grant
Affiliation:
Aston University
Nicci MacLeod
Affiliation:
Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Summary

Chapter 2 outlines the various sources of our data, which include logs of instant messaging conversations collected from genuine resolved cases of child sexual grooming, from a range of Dark Web fora dedicated to the topic of child sexual abuse, from undercover operations targeting the producers and disseminators of indecent images and videos of children, from role -playing exercises that take place within the Pilgrim Course for online investigators, and from a series of experiments we designed in order to systematically investigate key questions around language and identity performance. The chapter continues by describing our methodological approach to these data, starting with the micro-analysis at the structural level of language, including of vocabulary and orthographic features as we first began setting out in MacLeod and Grant (2012). We then move through our modifications of Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory and Gumperz’s (1982) approach to topic management inasmuch as they relate to instant messaging and the operational context, before finally setting out our theory about how these stratified levels of language interface in the performance of identities. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of ethics, both the research ethics of engaging with this area of criminal activity and the operational ethics of assisting the police in these contexts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Language and Online Identities
The Undercover Policing of Internet Sexual Crime
, pp. 26 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Data and Methods
  • Tim Grant, Aston University, Nicci MacLeod, Northumbria University, Newcastle
  • Book: Language and Online Identities
  • Online publication: 10 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108766425.005
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  • Data and Methods
  • Tim Grant, Aston University, Nicci MacLeod, Northumbria University, Newcastle
  • Book: Language and Online Identities
  • Online publication: 10 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108766425.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Data and Methods
  • Tim Grant, Aston University, Nicci MacLeod, Northumbria University, Newcastle
  • Book: Language and Online Identities
  • Online publication: 10 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108766425.005
Available formats
×