Forensic transcript analysis: A forensic linguistic examination of a 2015 criminal case in the United States
Master thesis
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3076124Utgivelsesdato
2023Metadata
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- Student papers (HF-IKS) [770]
Sammendrag
Forensic linguistics is an emerging field of research that applies linguistics to analyzelanguage and its use in a legal setting, including criminal, civil, and family courtproceedings. Police interviews are a critical source of evidence in law enforcementinvestigations, and the quality of the interview process is essential in analyzing policeinterview transcripts. The detection of deception is a significant challenge in variouscontexts, including law enforcement, politics, business, and personal relationships.Language patterns can signal deception and indicate underlying cognitive and emotionalprocesses. Therefore, in this study, special attention is given to the use of language, bothverbal and non-verbal cues, to gauge the veracity of an individual, as well as theapplication of police interview techniques and discourse analysis. The study aims todetermine the reliability of the suspect's statements during a police interview andexplore the effectiveness of different police interview techniques and their ethicalimplications. The analysis will draw on existing research in the field of forensic linguisticsand aims to provide an accurate understanding of police interviews to inform legaldecisions. The thesis analyzes the reliability of linguistic information gathered throughinterviews in a 2015 criminal case in the United States, using a forensic linguisticperspective. The thesis explores relevant literature on police interviews, deception,misrepresentations, interview techniques, and reliability discourse analysis. The researchquestions focus on the reliability of police interviews, in particular on the spoken word,misrepresentations within police interviews. The second research question focuses onthe use of police techniques and how they affect the reliability of interviews. The findingssuggest a nuanced impression of the reliability of the statements made within thetranscripts.