Forensic Linguistics

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Background: Child Witnesses

  • Why is this an area of interest to linguists? 
    • Children in cases of alleged sexual abuse often have no corroborating evidence
    • Children experience difficulties recounting what has happened 
    • Interviews have to tease out information in a non leading way 
    • Linguists collaborate with police to ensure the account from the child is the best possible 
    • Help interviewing officers talk with children 
    • Children have been viewed as unable to supply trustworthy testimony 
      • Prone to invention, unable to distinguish fact from fantasy, incompetent at accurately recalling events uncontaminated by suggestion 
    • Children told not to talk to strangers 
      • This has to be encouraged, particularly in the context of sex 
    • Pendulum has swung to giving credence to the evidence of children 
    • Children can give valuable testimony if they are properly prepared and interviewed 
    • Following Cleveland Enquiry, adults are enouraged to listen to children 
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Guidelines for interviewing children in England an

  • Legislation to look after children 
  • Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings 1992
    • Introduced video recording of child witnesses
    • Became evidence/case 
    • Fuller record 
  • Speaking Up For Justice 1998
  • Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Bill 1999
  • Special measures available for court 
    • Screening witness from the accused 
    • Giving evidence via live link 
    • Removal of wigs and gowns 
    • Giving evidence in private
    • Video recording of evidence in chief
    • VIdeo recording of cross examination and re-examination
    • Examination through intermediary
    • Provision of aids to communicate  
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Phased Interview

  • Rapport 
    • Describe setting and persons present 
      • Build a relationship 
      • Often parent is present 
      • Parent isnt meant to talk, only there for emotional support 
      • Adult present should really be unattached 
    • Reduce social distance 
      • Get them to believe in you
      • No mention of abuse 
      • Dont use closed questions 
      • Positive coaching 
        • Can be argued against by defence 
      • No mention of abuse 
    • Determine childs level of understanding 
      • General, neutral questions, practice active listening and get child used to interview style questions 
    • Explore childs understanding of truth and lie 
    • Lay appropriate ground rules for interview 
      • Okay to not know answers, give chance for a break, make it clear you dont know what happened 
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Phased Interview 2

  • Free Narrative 
    • Heart of interview
    • Child should be encouraged to provide in his or her own words and at his or her own pace an account of the relevent events 
    • Open questions provide more accurate information than closed questions 
      • Less vulnerable to adult suggestion 
    • Free narratives are persuasive 
    • No inference in court, dont say it then it isnt there 
    • Quantity problem 
      • Younger children typically provide much less information than older children or adults in free recall of events 
    • Quality problem
      • Critical knowledge needed by adult interviewers 
      • Consider use of props 
      • Children may say more when drawing 
      • Tease out mising information and restructure narrative 
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Phased Interview 3

  • Questioning 
    • Questioning should follow a phased approach, beginning with open questions and reserving direct/leading questions for the final phase 
    • Questions about body parts - heads, limbs, body 
      • Terminology for sexual body parts may be different
    • Use wh-quesitons in the order; what, where, who, when, how
      • Avoid why - never to be asked, attributes blame 
    • Be careful with option questions 
    • Be careful with yes/no questions
    • Avoid negative quesitons: did you not see him in the room? 
    • Avoid multiple questions: was it yesterday you went to the house and he was there? 
    • Avoid repeated questions 
  • Closure 
    • Take time to ask whether the child has any questions - answer appropriately 
    • Thank child for time and effort
    • Report end time of interview 
    • Neutral questioning to make child comfortable again 
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Role of the Forensic Linguist

  • Advice
    • Train professionals on how to communicate to children 
  • Reform 
    • Push for legal reform 
  • Support 
    • Can act as an expert witness
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Vulnerable witnesses in court: **** victims

  • Complaints in sexual cases
    • **** victims tend to be re-victimised in court 
  • Setting the scene 
    • **** is an exercise in power 
    • Language has prehistorically dis-empowered women 
      • Semantic derogation of women 
      • Bachelor - spinster : master - mistress 
      • Masculine generics - he/man - woman is invisible 
    • Non sexist language reforms but have things really changed 
    • Bias in legal system 
      • Predominantly male world 
    • Until 1991 a man could legally **** his wife
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Legal System

  • Issue of consent 
    • Victim has to relive the **** in courtroom testimony to a jury who have their own belief systems and expectations based partly on media representations 
    • Courtroom reenactment often results in victim being blamed for the crime because the **** myths are re-enforced
  • Juries are reluctant ot convict date **** 
  • Reliable vs unreliable witnesses 
    • Defence lawyers exploit male biased legal definitions of consent to badger the victim about ambiguous signals she may have sent the perpetrator 
  • Legitimate vs illegitimate perpetrators 
    • An armed stranger jumping from the bushes 
  • May be questioning if post **** behaviour fails to conform to male notions of the logical responses to the crime; if she didnt flee the scene or report the crime immediately 
  • **** Myths 
    • Who can be ****d
    • Type of attack/attacker 
    • Post **** behaviour 
  • **** is grossly under reported - conviction rate is 5.7% 
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Legal System 2

  • **** Cases
    • No-one can present sexual history before the jury
    • Accused cant cross examine the witness
    • More subtle abuse can still occur
    • To understand power relations and the potential for secondary abuse we need to analyse proceedings at the micro-linguistic level 
    • There are discourse strategies and lexical choices that cause problems for victims
  • Discourse Strategies 
    • Silence 
      • Lawyers have control over silence so they can manipulate the laws question and answer format in ways not usually permitted by turn taking rules and comment critically on a witness' credibility 
      • Lawyers manipulate time
      • Non verbal communication - implies witnesses is not telling truth or witholding information 
    • Question form
      • Lawyers control the timing and the form of questions 
      • Avoid wh- questions; too much scope 
      • Want witness to have limited range of answers 
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Legal System 3

  • Discourse Strategies 
    • Topic management 
      • Lawyer controls the topic under discussion 
    • Evaluative commentary 
      • Lawyers have the ability to make covert evaluative comments on the witness' behaviour 
    • Challenges to the witness' capacity for knowledge 
      • Lawyer calls into question not only the specific facts the witness claims to know, but also the sources of the claimed knowledge and ultimately whether the witness is capable of knowing anything at all 
      • Wants to create reasonable doubt 
      • Takes key bit of info and communicates that witness didnt know something 
  • Language Choice
    • Vocabulary is carefully selected by the lawyer to show how the defendant is innocent 
    • Defendants are coached to use language that minimises their role 
    • If defendant isnt seen to be doing anything actively wrong, this is an issue for the prosecution 
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Characteristics of speech

  • Typical characteristics of defendants speech 
    • Mitigating the force 
      • Passiveness - more persuasive 
      • Weak language can drift into consent 
    • Agentless passives 
    • Nominalisations 
  • Typical characteristics of victims speech 
    • Unsuccesful, weak actions 
    • Power over another - no control 
    • **** victims tend to doubt themselves 
    • **** cases are unique 
      • Was it an act of domination? Answered through an act of domination 
  • Sexual double bind 
    • How does the woman present herself? 
    • If emotional, the lawyer plays on irrational and incredible 
    • If in control, she would have allowed herself to be dominated 
    • The woman is in a double bind, she loses whichever approach she takes 
    • A woman cant be simultaneously competent and vulnerable 
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