Manual of Romance Forensic Linguistics

The vast majority of science-based work in Forensic Linguistics available is both written in English and based on case histories from the English-speaking world. While the first characteristic is understandable given the nature of English as lingua franca, the second represents a serious restriction of the field and of its treatment as empirical data in scientific investigation and research. This is part of a more general lack of published studies of forensic practice, again most acutely felt in the area of Romance languages. Are we to assume that there is less crime in the non-English speaking section of the world? Or what are the factors, cultural, legal, legal-cultural, or in terms of legal practices of courts and police behind this absence?

Apart from trying to remedy the underrepresentation in the publication arena of science-based forensic work, this volume, divided into three parts, will also try to identify reasons for these imbalances. Part I provides a general overview of Forensic Linguistic work in the Romance languages. Part II presents selected casework and research done in several consolidated areas of expertise, such as speaker identification, authorship identification and plagiarism detection. Part III tackles casework and cutting-edge research in some emerging areas of expertise, such as statement veracity assessment, language crimes and cybercrimes.