Ambiguity is commonly considered unintentional while deception is considered intentional. Here, Roger W. Shuy describes fifteen criminal cases in which police, prosecutors, and undercover agents used deceptive ambiguity with criminal suspects and defendants, many times giving evidence of being intentionally constructed through the manipulation of the speech events, schemas, agendas, speech acts, strategies, lexicon, and grammar. Although certain types of intentional deceptive ambiguity are central for successful undercover operations, the case examples in this book demonstrate how various types of deceptive ambiguity are common not only in undercover operations but also in police interviews and courtroom examinations conducted by prosecutors.

Ambiguity is commonly considered unintentional while deception is considered intentional. Here, Roger W. Shuy describes fifteen criminal cases in which police, prosecutors, and undercover agents used deceptive ambiguity with criminal suspects and defendants, many times giving evidence of being intentionally constructed through the manipulation of the speech events, schemas, agendas, speech acts, strategies, lexicon, and grammar

Much has been written about how criminal suspects, defendants, and the targets of undercover operations employ ambiguous language as they interact with the legal system. This book examines the other side of the coin, describing fifteen criminal investigations that demonstrate how police, prosecutors, and undercover agents use deceptive ambiguity with their subjects and targets, thereby creating misrepresentations through their uses of speech events, schemas, agendas, speech acts, lexicon, and grammar. This misrepresentation also can strongly affect the perceptions of later listeners, such as judges and juries, about the subjects' motives, predispositions, intentions, and voluntariness. Deception is commonly considered intentional while ambiguity is often excused as unintentional, in line with Grice's maxim of sincerity in his cooperative principle. Most of the interactions of suspects, defendants, and targets with representatives of law enforcement, however, are oppositional, adversarial, and non-cooperative events that provide the opportunity for participants to stretch, ignore, or even violate the cooperative principle. One effective way law enforcement does this is by using ambiguity. Suspects and defendants may hear such ambiguous speech and not recognize the ambiguity and therefore react in ways that they may not have understood or intended. The fifteen case studies in this book illustrate how deceptive ambiguity, whether intentional or not, is used as commonly by police, prosecutors and undercover agents as it is by suspects and defendants.

This book delves into a multitude of practices that, although deemed “lawful” by courts, are undeniably “awful” and unethical. From police officers employing deceit to extract confessions or consent to search, to prosecutors manipulating innocent individuals to relinquish their rights and plead guilty, to excessive force by law enforcement, these practices erode public trust in the criminal legal system and deny justice to those affected. With a critical examination of these deeply flawed tactics, this volume goes beneath the surface to explore their profound impact on the ethical standards and emotional health of justice system practitioners. It forcefully argues for a reclaiming of The Social Contract and for peace officers and prosecutors to unequivocally reject these unethical methods and recognize the urgent need for a criminal justice system that truly embodies ethics and fairness. This work equips police officers, prosecutors, judges, and legislators with invaluable research, enabling them to actively advocate for a transformed system that ethically serves justice for all in the post-George Floyd era.