Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction to Language, Crime and the Law

by John Olsson

The book is intended to be the core text for forensic linguistic courses at undergraduate level, and the key text for postgraduate research students wishing to gain an overall grasp of the subject. The author has based his text on his personal experience as a practising forensic linguist working with lawyers and police in Britain and the United States. Forensic Linguistics contains detailed studies of all the major areas of the discipline, including the detection of plagiarism, the observation of style change, and an analysis of all of the most important types of forensic text, including ransom demands, suicide notes, hate mail, smear mail, trick mail, and terrorist mail. Perhaps one of the greatest assets of the book is its discussion of specific forensic texts including the 'stalker text' from John Hinckley, an excerpt from the Unabomber case, several 17th century Salem witch trial 'confessions', Virginia Woolf's suicide note, and ransom notes from the Lindbergh kidnapping and Carlos the Jackal. Uniquely, Olsson looks not only at techniques for use in forensic linguistics per se, but also at how forensic linguistics can be of use to law enforcement and criminal justice professionals at the investigation level. This makes the book uniquely authoritative, giving it a practical 'hands-on' appeal to linguists and non-linguists alike.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language, Crime, Textbooks

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Dr. John Olsson was an internationally recognized forensic linguist whose work led him to give evidence in court rooms around the world, including in the USA, Australia, Canada and Singapore, in addition to courts in the UK. His main specialty was the authorship of anonymous documents, such as hoax letters, product contamination threats and kidnap and other ransom demands. In addition, he was an expert in linguistic aspects of code-breaking. He worked on every major type of crime from murder to terrorism, assault of all types, fraud and forgery, narcotics distribution, organized crime and kidnap and other forms of extortion.

Reviews

[Anne Anon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good informative read, especially if you are a word-nerd or a law student.
If you enjoy the nitty gritty of language construction, this is for you. If not, this could be quite heavy going. This book is teaming with linguistic jargon and technical procedures. However it is well written with a personal tone that keeps it from being too dry.
Each chapter describes a different criminal case where the author was called upon to use forensic linguistic skills to analyse written or vocal evidence. The cases are fascinating: poison pen letters & emails, witness statements, voice identification, suicide notes, text messaging and copyright infringement.
I found Chapter 4 “Is the Da Vinci Code Plagiarism?” interesting as it makes clear plagiarism: as an academic offense versus copy right infringement: a civil offense, legally protected by payment of damages.
The author was engaged by the novelist Lew Perdue to look at the evidence to see if Dan Brown had infringed his copyright. Perdue wrote a series of books on the subject of the catholic church under threat by some secret documents pertaining to the “lost feminine”. In particular “Daughter of God” (2000) had very similar themes and plot to “The Da Vinci Code”. Olsson found convincing forensic evidence to support Perdue’s infringement of copyright claim, (the most convincing being the repetition of research mistakes) but he holds back from asserting outright plagiarism. Perhaps because the district judge ruled that the claim was wrong and the Supreme Court backed his decision.
On the whole this is good read, a bit hard going at times but easy to dip in and out of.

[Jakub Sláma · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have any background in linguistics/philology, the first four or five chapters can be quite boring; otherwise a very nice & interesting read.

[ZAINAB · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second book of Mr. John, I actually love his writing however, since I read two so far of his, I think he sometimes repeats the same information/stories.
I would be lying if I said I’m not planning to buy his newer book of this series..

His books should’ve been included in my major here in Saudi Arabia as it is very valuable and easy.