Chapter Two, “Toward the Recreation of a Field of Indexicality: Domestic Violence, Social Meaning, and Ideology,” begins the real analytical work, building a theory of indexicality that can be used to analyze and understand the narrative, interactional work done in storytelling about domestic violence. In Chapter 2, I identify the myriad ideas, concepts, values, and ideologies that circulate in narratives about domestic violence and encounters between police officers and victim/survivors of domestic violence. I argue that the field of indexicality functions like a tapestry made out of stories told about domestic violence and police, while also informing and shaping said tapestry. For example, nearly every participant in the study, police officer and victim/survivor alike, touches on issues of emotional violence, physical violence, staying in and leaving abusive relationships, and policing. In this variety of stories, a great number of values and topics emerge that identify some of the fundamental ideological structures that underpin domestic violence and keep it a culturally viable structure.

In the introduction, I review literature on domestic violence, policing, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, and more. This chapter is intended to provide a backdrop for the analysis that is to come. In this chapter, I situate my arguments in the existing scholarship on domestic violence and law enforcement.