Applying linguistics - language use and the process of reconstructing serious crimes through language

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• Silke Kirschner (Central Police Training and Development Authority (Centrex))
• Monday 27 November 2006, 17:00-18:00
• Room 1S3 New Faculty of Education Building, Hills Road.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Edith Esch.

Does linguistics matter within the criminal justice system? It does and, in fact, alongside other – physical – evidence, it often is the main tool to reconstruct a crime. A person who becomes a victim of a serious crime such as a sexual assault, would first of all talk to the police about what has happened to them. This often marks the beginning of a long ‘linguistic battle’ about finding out what exactly has happened – in order to successfully investigate and prosecute the crime.

This presentation aims at first giving a brief insight into the importance of language awareness within the police setting in general and the work of the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) in particular. SCAS supports investigations into serious sexually motivated crimes such as rape and murder across the UK and Northern Ireland.

On the basis of the victim’s account of the crime, SCAS analysts establish the main features of the offender’s behaviour and would subsequently search a special database in order to identify similar cases that may have been committed by the same offender. The way relevant information is input onto that database is crucial as it influences the success of retrieving similar cases; it thereby potentially impacts on the subsequent investigative process.

Finally, it will be discussed what is currently being done in SCAS to control and improve the quality of the data.

This talk is part of the CILR Monday Mailing: talks in language and linguistics series.

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