THE ROLE OF FORENSIC LINGUISTICS IN CRIME INVESTIGATION: USES IN LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

This paper considers the extent to which forensic linguistics can be considered a science, and outlines some ways in which it is useful in legal proceedings, including voice identification, the interpretation of police-suspect interaction, verification of police reports, and cross-cultural insights into speech patterns in a courtroom context. On the basis of the analysis, the paper concludes that Forensic linguistics can prove beneficial for the investigation of crimes, analysis of the judicial procedures, and particularly disputes in law. It can also be used for the analysis of courtroom discourse and interpret and translate the legal documents for their readability and comprehensibility. Moreover, the police cautions issued to the suspects can also be analyzed for their comprehensibility and the authorship attribution can be established for written or spoken texts. It, therefore, works as the interface between language, crime, and the law.

Keywords: forensic linguistics, authorship detection, authorship attribution, voice identification, forensic text types, etc.