ABSTRACT

Researching Forensic Linguistics is an informative, hands-on guide to conducting research in forensic linguistics that can underpin legal and justice practices and address social justice problems involving language.

Georgina Heydon takes readers step by step through the research process using case studies that draw on different types of forensic and legal language data such as police interviews, anonymous reports of sexual assault, threatening letters and justice stakeholder interviews. Each chapter is framed by a language problem arising from either forensic linguistic case work or a key issue in language and the law. Up-to-date research methods in forensic linguistics are presented, including authorship attribution using online corpora, practice-based linguistic analysis and experimental techniques. 

This is an ideal companion for linguists who want to apply their skills to a forensic setting, practitioners in the legal and justice fields seeking to understand how linguistic analysis can support their work, and any student undertaking research in forensic linguistics within English language, linguistics, applied linguistics and legal studies.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

part I|26 pages

Language crimes

chapter 1|9 pages

Authorship attribution case file

Murder in Mackay

chapter 2|10 pages

Legal language interpretation case file

Solvency and semantics

part II|56 pages

Police procedures

chapter 3|19 pages

Police interviewing

Questioning strategies in UK and US models of training 1

chapter 4|18 pages

Lie detection and linguistics

chapter 5|16 pages

Police cautions and comprehension 1

part III|57 pages

Legal process

chapter 6|12 pages

Anonymous reporting of sexual assault

Assessing the value of online, form-based reporting 1

chapter 7|17 pages

Legal investigative interviewing

Questioning strategies in civil and administrative investigations

chapter 8|13 pages

Access to justice

Post-colonial language attitudes