FORENSIC LINGUISTICS
What is Forensic Linguistics?
In its broadest sense, Forensic Linguistics is the intersection between linguistics, crime and law. The adjective forensic most prominently refers to the application of scientific knowledge to the investigation of crime or legal problems. The noun linguistics refers to the systematic study of language and its structure. A Forensic Linguist collaborates with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and compiles scientific analyses of written or spoken evidence to support criminal and intelligence inquiries. This can be in the form of investigative analyses or expert witness reports.
What is Forensic Linguistics not?
Psychology (study of human mind and behavior)
Statement analysis (study of accuracy of words)
Translation/interpretation of documents
Graphology (study of handwriting)
What types of evidence can a Forensic Linguist analyze?
Any type of written or spoken language can be analyzed as raw intelligence or become evidence if it is complicit in a criminal context.
TACTICAL LINGUISTICS
What is Tactical Linguistics?
Over the last few years, Julia has developed, researched and implemented the concept of Tactical Linguistics, a pre-incident, preventative approach that illustrates how a linguist can assist investigative authorities in a threat mitigation environment dealing with terrorism and other types of violent threats “left of bang”. It has since become a promising aid for assessing the level of risk in different types of language evidence across various populations of concern, advancing the integration of linguistic expertise into various disciplines, including law enforcement, security, legal and mental health contexts.
In a risk management environment, concerning communications are analyzed to determine the severity, probability, immediacy, credibility and complexity of a threat that could indicate an intent or risk for violence, harm and/or disruption. This can, for instance, include identifying pre-attack warning indicators in the language of a subject of concern before a crime occurs, and analyzing the textual substance of concerning language that might signal an imminent threat. By analyzing more specifically the language of concerning communications, Julia can assist in a threat assessment and case management approach, and help investigators refine their opinions on the level of risk by any given scenario and advise what degree of monitoring should be considered for a subject of concern.
What types of evidence can a Tactical Linguist analyze?
To intervene before an act of violence occurs, a linguistic threat analysis can be applied to written and spoken communications, for instance leakage in the form of terrorism, school or criminal threats — such as manifestos, threat letters, audio or video recordings.
Julia has assisted multi-disciplinary threat assessment teams in the corporate, educational and private sectors and law enforcement agencies by analyzing the following language evidence:
Online postings on various social media platforms targeting an art institution
Bomb threats made against law enforcement and districts in Los Angeles
Defamation and harassment letters against law enforcement officials
Hate mail against law enforcement agencies and fire departments
Stalking emails and phone calls sent by a client to an employee
Concerning text messages sent to the CEO of a large company
Extortion emails against an international technology company
Terrorism manifestos and violent online journal-style entries
Threat letters disseminated to minority-owned businesses
Cyber-bullying profiles and messages on social media
Threatening letters against schools and businesses
Handwritten threat letters sent to a public figure
Warning communications sent to a TV reporter
Ideological manuals, declarations and articles
Stalking book sent to a prominent figure
Active shooter suicide audio recordings
Homicide-suicide and criminal threats
Workplace violence manifesto
LANGUAGE ANALYSIS
How does a Forensic/Tactical Linguist analyze language evidence?
A Forensic or Tactical Linguist may use a variety of methods to examine certain documents, depending on the evidence and query.
Comparative authorship analysis
In general, authorship can be described as identifying features that occur more or less regularly in a writer’s text and features that might distinguish one author from another. Forensic Authorship Analysis identifies author(s) of anonymous, questioned or disputed texts by comparing a range of language features. These can include:
Lexis (vocabulary)
Syntax (sentence structure)
Semantics (meaning of word)
Pragmatics (language use and contexts)
Morphology (structure of words and their relationship to other words).
Example: A subject is being investigated for sending hateful messages to a classmate, and a cyber-bullying profile is discovered on social media. Is it possible that the person of interest authored the messages and the concerning posts?
Markedness theory
When conducting a Markedness Analysis, documents are examined for marked constructions to identify if one suspect could be the possible author of x amount of questioned documents. The “markedness theory” refers to distinctive expressions, grammatical/spelling mistakes, or the unconventional use of punctuation. All observations are tested in a corpus in order to determine their frequencies and therefore, the rareness of the word or phrase.
Example: A number of phishing emails were sent to several employees of a technology company, and the investigator is trying to identify the perpetrator. How likely is it that all emails were written by the same person?
Linguistic threat analysis
Forensic Linguists can assist in analyzing threats by examining the presence/absence of textual substance, which refers to the relationship between the content and addressee. A text may appear to be a threat, but does it actually have the relevant content or is it an empty threat? Does the threat reflect the apparent purpose of the text?
Example: The CEO of a financial institution receives an electronic ransom demand. Investigators are creating a profile on the subject and have connected several data points. How serious is the threat from a linguistic perspective?
Meta-structure analysis
The analysis of meta-structures within a text can be a valuable tool in analyzing the underlying intentions of an author. A Forensic Linguist can determine whether things are done or just happen, who does what, and how writers report what they know. This is achieved by examining certain text elements, such as participants, actions, events and responses.
Example: Several threatening and hateful letters were sent to a local church. Investigators are trying to determine the exact location of the person of interest to establish the immediate impact on time and resources. How severe and probable are the concerning threats from a language perspective?
Author profiling
Forensic Linguists may carry out author profiling as an important first step in an investigation to narrow down the list of potential suspects. This is not a psychological analysis or evaluation, but an attempt at socially profiling the author of a text. This means identifying social variables of an individual based on a written text, such as origin (dialect, native/non-native writer), social status, age, gender, level of education, occupation, and political or other affiliation. However, not all texts will provide clues to this type of information and in some cases, the writer attempts to deceive the reader. Hence, all interpretations of such observations need to be handled with care.
Example: A bomb threat is made to a university campus. What kind of social characteristics can be identified?