ABSTRACT
The field of forensic linguistics is concerned with applications of linguistic analysis to the law. This includes diverse topics, contexts and data types, such as courtroom language and interaction; legal documents; police interviews with witnesses, victims and those who have been arrested; and forensic analyses of ‘voice’. This chapter considers language, gender and sexuality research in legal and forensic contexts. This includes research on some potentially challenging and sensitive topics, such as gendered and sexual violence, harassment and consent and coercion. An increase in media attention to linguistic issues, such as consent, is also highlighting the growing importance of this field of research not only within the academic study of language, gender and sexuality but also in the wider social world. The chapter firstly addresses semantic issues concerning understandings of ‘consent’. This includes some analysis of people’s understandings of consent, how consent is represented in texts and how ideas about consent (and the credibility of victims, witnesses and defendants) can be manipulated through the use of language in trial interaction. The chapter then goes on to present and discuss data from trial and tribunal interaction from rape and sexual assault cases.
