The problem with belief: the history and present of discursive violence in policing rape

To understand the metapragmatics of sexual assault at a police academy in Illinois that has a novel approach to sexual assault training, this dissertation examines the discursive development of various rape myths within the United States, and Illinois specifically, while also tracing the development of policing. To do this, I thoroughly contextualize rape myths and their development within the US cultural and legal systems including within settler-colonialism, chattel slavery, and various social movements. This historical and archival research establishes further evidence that rape is always racialized, gendered, and classed, regardless of the identities of those involved and that these identities continue to influence police response to sexual assault complaints. Pulling from linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, and gender studies, and employing the theories/concepts of feminist scholars of color and Critical Race theorists, I place my dissertation under an approach I call Decolonial Feminist Linguistic Anthropology. critically examine the role of race and gender in discourses on sexual assault. Combining archival and ethnographic research, I critically examine the role of race and gender in discourses on sexual assault. I show how a range of social structures, past and present, inform the construction of rape and belief, how these constructions have surfaced in the policing of sexual violence, and how conceptions of expertise, rooted in the Professionalization Movement of policing, have recently taken aim at disrupting these constructions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Moore, Britni

Contributors dc:contributor

• Smalls, Krystal
• Rosas, Gilberto
• Koven, Michele
• Ehrlich, Susan

• Rape Myth Discourses
• Discursive Violence
• Epistemic Injustice
• Police Training on Sexual Assault
• Cop Talk

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Britni Jo Moore

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132524

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132524