My thesis focuses on communication between police officers and alleged victims at the scene during domestic abuse call-outs in England and Wales. Having been a largely unexplored site of empirical research, call-out interactions are now accessible due to the proliferation of police body-worn video (BWV). The study takes a linguistic ethnographic approach to explore the interpersonal work done by both police and alleged victims at the scene.

This project is motivated by the belief that a more contextualised and nuanced understanding of these pivotal interactions could inform the improvement of services provided by the police and other agencies to those affected by domestic abuse.