

Number 509 September 2015

Forensic Language Analysis

Overview
 Forensic linguistics and phonetics are used
in criminal investigations, counter-terrorism,
intelligence and surveillance.
 Some forms of forensic linguistic and
phonetic evidence are routinely used in
criminal courts.
 There are guidelines on who can provide
expert evidence; however, expertise is not
statutorily regulated.
 The Home Office uses language analysis to
help determine the origin of asylum seekers.
Forensic linguistics and phonetics are sciences There has been no independent
that examine text and speech. They have assessment of these practices and they
applications in criminal, civil and asylum legal have been criticised both by academics and
proceedings, and in the private sector (for in the UK Supreme Court.
example, in verifying identity). They are also  Voice is increasingly used as a biometric in
used in counter-terrorism, intelligence and the public and private sector.
surveillance. This note examines the scientific  Automatic speaker recognition systems can
validity of procedures and their applications, process thousands of speech samples,
and explores the issues surrounding their use. enabling law enforcement agencies to focus
on persons of interest.
Background
Linguistics is the study of language and its structure.1 intelligence and surveillance tools, to detect fraud,
Forensic linguistics and forensic phonetics are sub- malpractice5,6 or plagiarism,7 and to verify identity.
disciplines which have a range of applications .
 Forensic linguistics concerns the analysis of written and Procedures and Techniques
spoken language for legal purposes. Analyses are done There are two main types of expert analysts: linguists and
both for investigative purposes and when a specimen phoneticians. These experts use a combination of software,
(such as a text, email or internet chat) is due to be expertise and statistical approaches in their analyses.
presented as evidence in court (Box 1). The police Computer scientists have developed technologies to
engage experts to assist with investigations as does the automate linguistic and phonetic analyses. These
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or defence solicitors approaches do not require an expert to implement them but
where specimens may be admissible as evidence.2 do need expert interpretation. The next section looks at the
 Forensic phonetics concerns the scientific properties of main procedures used.
speech (such as sound wave frequencies). An expert is
engaged when there is a speech specimen from a crime.3 Authorship Analysis (Written Language)
 Sociolinguistic profiling: when the author of a piece of
Beyond the forensic context, phonetic analysis along with writing such as an email or text message is unknown,
analysis of vocabulary and grammar is also used as a tool in experts analyse it and make inferences about the author’s
the asylum process. The Home Office contracts two background such as their age or education. They do this,
companies to interview an applicant, analyse his or her for example, by scrutinising the use of slang terms,
language and assess the degree to which it matches the dialect words and spelling mistakes.2
language found in the region he or she claims to come  Comparative authorship analysis: if authorship of a
from.4 Linguistic and phonetic procedures are also used as piece of writing is in dispute, an expert compares the

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA T 020 7219 2840 E post@parliament.uk www.parliament.uk/post
POSTnote 509 September 2015 Forensic Language Analysis Page 2

Conclusions are given as numerical probabilities, which

Box 1. Court Cases Admitting Linguistic and Phonetic Evidence
These cases have involved forensic experts giving evidence in court: can then be expressed qualitatively.
 R v Uter, Abouakkour, Roberts, Wood and Williams [2014]. An
expert compared recordings of telephone calls made by the Other Procedures and Techniques
suspects with interview recordings made by the police and  Transcription: phoneticians transcribe recordings.20
concluded that the samples were highly similar. The defendants  Resolution of disputed utterances: when a recording
were convicted for kidnapping, torture and witness intimidation.8
 R v Julie Dawn Lunn [2012]. West Yorkshire Police commissioned exists from a crime and what was said is disputed,
an expert to compare blackmail letters with written specimens experts can analyse it.21
known to be written by the defendant, leading to her conviction.9  Authentication: experts analyse the authenticity of
 R v Rizwan Ahmed and others [2012]. Two experts9 acted for the recordings, for example if the date of recording is in
defence in a murder case, analysing slang text messages between question. Techniques include comparing patterns of
the co-accused. Charges were dropped against one defendant. fluctuation in low-level frequencies from the national
 R v Ogundele [2010]. An expert analysed internet chat that
contained abbreviations and dialect terms and appeared to contain power supply in the recording with those in a database.22
a conspiracy to murder. He determined the meaning of one term as  Detecting deception: this procedure developed outside
having associations with shooting and killing.10 of the fields of linguistics and phonetics.23 The technology
analyses samples of speech (usually recorded during a
phone call) and aims to detect emotions such as stress,
disputed text with samples of known authorship,
which are purported to be indicative of deception (Box 2).
assessing linguistic similarity and distinctiveness, such as
Phoneticians, however, state it is not possible to make a
repeated spelling errors. The expert gives an opinion of
link between patterns in speech and deception.24,25
the likelihood that the texts were written by the same
person.2
Validity and reliability of techniques
Assessing the validity and reliability of these procedures is
Meaning Analysis (Written and Spoken Language) complicated because of the nature of the data and
 Determination of meaning: this involves analysing
procedures. In other areas of forensic science, such as DNA
words or phrases – often slang or regional dialect terms – analysis, data at the population level enables experts to
in text or speech.2 The expert analyses the linguistic calculate the probability that two samples have the same
material, for example examining its regional origin, then origin. Linguistic and phonetic population level data are
comments on its contextual meaning (Box 1, bullet 4). limited, making it difficult to establish the prevalence of
 Corpus linguistics: software processes hundreds of
features.26 This means that conclusions cannot be
documents such as online extremist texts.11,12 It identifies expressed statistically, or with the same degree of certainty
keywords, phrases and themes, which can be used for as in other areas of forensic science. In linguistics, experts
intelligence gathering and investigative purposes. draw on their knowledge and experience as well as
computational methods in their analysis. The validity and
Speaker Analysis reliability of the expert cannot be easily tested. In phonetics,
 Speaker profiling: an expert listens to speech samples experts use their trained ear and speech processing
and uses a highly trained ear and specialist software to software. However, because within-speaker variability
analyse speech and accent features to build a profile of makes every instance of speech unique, an expert cannot
the speaker, localising him or her to a certain region or draw conclusions with certainty. 22,27,28 Computational
demographic background.13 procedures can be used in some circumstances and give
 Speaker comparison: an expert compares speech numerical conclusions which also express degree of
samples of a known individual with those of uncertain certainty. Although routinely admitted in European courts
origin. By analysing the features in all samples, the expert and elsewhere, computationally processed evidence is
assesses the similarity and distinctiveness and considers seldom admissible in UK courts.
whether the results support the view that the recordings
are of the same speaker or different speakers.14 The
degree of support is expressed on a qualitative scale, for Box 2. Detecting Deception?
Voice risk analysis (VRA) technology is purported by its advocates to
example, ‘strong support’. 15,16
indicate deception. It is mainly used as an anti-fraud tool, for example
 Automatic speaker recognition and verification: in the insurance industry and by local authorities to assist in detecting
computational technology extracts biometric information benefit fraud. The main provider of VRA in the UK is DigiLog.29
(based on the physiology of an individual’s vocal tract) Corporate clients assert that VRA reduces fraud,30 but it is unclear if
from speech samples. These samples can be compared this is because it successfully identifies fraudsters or because
with others to perform automatic speaker comparison customer awareness acts as a deterrent. The technology was not
developed by phoneticians, who are very sceptical of its validity and
(sometimes known as recognition) or verify if the same
reliability.31 Research conducted by business experts32 using
person is speaking in multiple samples (verification). 17,18 simulated lab data suggests that the technology may pick up on
The technology can sift through very large databases of proxies for deception. Intellectual property restrictions mean that
speakers.19 This is not the same as automatic speech independent experts have been unable to scrutinise many of the
recognition systems, which recognise words, not analytical parameters.
speakers (for example speech-to-text software).
POSTnote 509 September 2015 Forensic Language Analysis Page 3

Linguistics, Phonetics and Criminal Justice Box 3. Forensic Science Regulation and The Expert Witness
Use in the Criminal Justice System Regulation
In criminal investigations, expert linguists or phoneticians The Forensic Science Regulator (FSR) seeks to ensure that all
may be engaged by the police, Crown Prosecution Service forensic science used in the criminal justice system meets quality
or defence. Since its creation in 2008, experts from the standards,39 but it does not have statutory powers. The Science and
Technology Select Committee supported statutory regulation in
Centre for Forensic Linguistics have provided more than 2013,40 which the Home Office is reviewing.41 Guidance on legal
500 evidential and investigative reports. 9Error! Bookmark obligations and codes of practice and conduct for the profession are
not defined. J.P. French Associates, the largest private UK produced by the FSR. Forensic phonetics is classed by the FSR as a
forensic phonetics laboratory, works on approximately 200 branch of digital forensics, and organisations performing analyses and
cases per year. laboratory procedures (rather than the experts themselves) must be
accredited by October 2017.42 Forensic linguistics is not recognised
by the FSR as forensic science as it argues that analyses are
Specific Procedures
subjective. However, forensic linguists must conform to Ministry of
Expert sociolinguistic profiling of a specimen of writing by an Justice expectations laid out in the Criminal Procedure Rules.43 The
unknown author can help to reduce the pool of suspects.33 International Association of Forensic Linguists44 and the International
Though used in investigations, it is not used evidentially in Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics45 have codes of
the UK. Where a text has been sent from the mobile phone practice, but these are guidelines and are not enforced.
of a person who is missing and presumed dead, an expert The Expert Witness
analyses the texts of interest and reports on their similarity The Ministry of Justice’s Criminal Procedure Rules46 and Criminal
to known texts from the missing person, suspect or Practice Directions47 specify who can act as an expert witness and
someone else (Box 1, bullet 2). The police engage experts what can be admitted as expert evidence. The CPS also provides
guidance for experts and on expert evidence. 48,49 Its guiding
to carry out speaker profiling when a recording of an principles50 are in line with those set down by the Forensic Science
offender’s voice exists but there is as yet no suspect. This Regulator. Admissibility is determined by common law:51 R v Turner
procedure is used in UK investigations, but is not admissible [1975] set the precedent that expert evidence must be ‘outside of the
as evidence, unlike in other parts of Europe. If there is an experience of a judge or jury’.52 In 2011, the Law Commission
earwitness to a crime, the police can use a voice parade (a reviewed the use of expert evidence and recommended
line-up of voice recordings including the suspect’s). A 2003 standardisation but this was not taken up by Government. 53,54
Home Office circular advises that police should collaborate
with phoneticians who apply techniques of speaker science raise expectations.3 This presents two problems:
comparison when selecting voices.34 When there is doubt  jurors expect certain procedures to be possible which
over who was speaking in a criminal interaction and there experts assert are not, such as personality analysis,
are several suspects, the CPS or defence engage an expert determining truth and falsity, and assessing threat in
analyst, who presents their findings as evidence. speech intonation (although this is a research interest).55
 jurors expect conclusions to be presented with certainty.
One current research interest in linguistics is in police
interviews in rape and sexual assault cases. The CPS often Expressing Conclusions
decides not to prosecute following the initial police Some phoneticians and linguists are frustrated by the
investigation.35 In cases where consent is an issue, suspect pressure to present numerical conclusions and express
and victim interviews are particularly important sources of certainty, since these are not generally possible.2
evidence. Research indicates that current interviewing Expressing conclusions so that judges and juries can
practices may not enable the best quality evidence to be understand and evaluate them has been highlighted as an
elicited.36 Training developed in collaboration with linguists issue across forensic science.56,57,58 There are concerns as
could improve this. to how understandable probability statistics are and how
and whether it is possible to convert them accurately to
Concerns about use in Criminal Investigations qualitative conclusions.
Academic researchers and practitioners have four main
areas of concern. Technical Limitations
Some academics and practitioners highlight limitations in
Regulation of Expertise various procedures used in criminal investigations. They
The main concern is that substandard expertise may lead to assert that whilst sociolinguistic profiling is used in
miscarriages of justice. Although it is not known whether this investigations, it cannot and should not be submitted as
has happened in the UK, a person was wrongly jailed in Italy evidence.59 Voice parades are deemed effective by
because of errors in the forensic phonetic report.37,38 Since phoneticians but are lengthy and costly.60 Academics are
there is no statutory regulation or accreditation of experts in researching how to streamline the design and use of voice
the UK (Box 3), individuals with inadequate expertise can parades.61 Some psychologists are sceptical about voice
present themselves as experts. parades because of the complex nature of memory of
voice.62 They consider voice recognition less reliable than
Understanding Limitations face recognition, the reliability of which is itself uncertain.63
Researchers and practitioners highlight the danger of the
‘CSI effect’ whereby TV and film representations of forensic
POSTnote 509 September 2015 Forensic Language Analysis Page 4

Asylum and Language Analysis Box 4. Language Analysis in Refugee Status Determination
If there is doubt surrounding an asylum applicant’s claimed When someone seeks asylum, the Home Office takes the applicant’s
origin, the Home Office carries out several procedures details and checks if he or she has already sought asylum.84 The
including Language Analysis (LA) to test the claim (Box 4). applicant is then interviewed. Since August 2014, the Swedish
Claimed nationalities associated with a high number of company Verified is the principal LA provider, with the Swedish
company Sprakab providing secondary support. An in-house analyst,
fraudulent asylum applications (currently Palestine, Syria
who is a native speaker of the applicant’s language, interviews the
and Kuwait)64 are tested systematically. As well as detecting applicant by telephone and then, with a linguist, assesses the
fraud in asylum claims, the Home Office’s rationale for using linguistic behaviour against predetermined criteria. They produce a
LA includes speeding up application processing, cutting report concluding how consistent the applicant’s speech is with
costs and deterring fraudulent claims.65 However, a Home speech in the claimed place of origin or former places of residence.
Office report (2011)65 concluded that it is not possible to banks). A Government Digital Service-sponsored project is
know whether LA is a deterrent. Between 2008-2010, 2,198 looking into the potential use of ASV for telephone access to
LAs were carried out at a cost of £174,000.66 Home Office government services and to confirm online identity.
data on more recent costs and cost savings is not available.
Automatic Speaker Recognition (ASR)
Issues of using LA in Determining Refugee Status This is used to identify whether one specimen of speech
Although phoneticians and linguists support the theoretical consistently closely resembles another (for example from a
concept of language analysis67,68 some,69,70 along with database) to help determine whether it is likely to be the
social scientists71,72 and legal practitioners,73,74 criticise same person speaking. ASR technology was used to
procedures that attempt to determine nationality or origin identify a perpetrator of the 2006 Madrid airport bombing85
such as LA. They all assert that the relationship between and has been used by UK security agencies since 2007.
language and nationality or origin is complex; language ASR output is used evidentially in 35 countries86 but not in
does not always map neatly onto geographical the UK. J.P. French Associates is carrying out research with
boundaries.69 Displacement (often repeated) is a common ASR with a view to integrating it into future practice.
experience for refugees, which often affects language.75
Issues with ASV and ASR
Standards, Methods and Practice
ASV and ASR give numerical conclusions but the inherent
LA practitioners do not have to conform to the standards for
variability in voice means 100% certainty is impossible. ASV
experts in the criminal justice system. There are calls to
and ASR are usually used with other personal data to
raise the standard of expertise.76 Unlike some other
increase reliability. In simulations, error rates are low (in the
European countries (such as Norway) the UK, does not
range of 1.5-2.6%)87,88 but real data may be of poorer
have statutory minimum requirements. Internationally
quality and environmental and cross-channel distortions (if
authored non-statutory guidelines (2004)67 exist, but
one sample comes from a telephone and another from
academics argue that they need updating.77 Practitioners
Skype) make the technology less successful. Fraudulent
wrote a set of ‘minimal requirements’ in 2008 but they were
access using stolen voice recordings is a technical concern
not pursued.77 There are varying practices across Europe:
that industry is addressing: the company Agnitio reports
some agencies use a ‘specialised linguist method’; others
detecting up to 99% of spoofs.89 Improving reliability is a
use a trained native speaker and a linguist.77 There has
research interest. Standardisation of voice biometrics is not
been no independent analysis of methodologies, though
as advanced as other biometrics; however, an International
studies indicate that procedures can be accurate.78 The lack
Standards Organisation code of practice for implementing
of research means LA’s reliability is unknown.79,77 The
biometric systems is expected in 2016.90
ESRC funded research to address this, but a lack of access
to some providers’ data prevented any meaningful
Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism
analysis.80,81 Academics criticise the lack of methodological
The security services use technologies and engage experts
transparency in the field.77 The practices of Sprakab (the
to carry out procedures outlined earlier, as well as:91
primary commercial provider until August 2014) were
 Infiltration and disruptive policing: forensic linguists
criticised in a 2014 UK Supreme Court judgment in which
are training West Midlands Police in assuming online
guidance for the role of the analyst was laid out.82 The
identities to infiltrate paedophile networks. The ESRC is
Home Office has addressed some of the issues identified.
funding research (£400k) into methodologies for this.92
 Analysing digital personas: computer scientists are
Biometrics: Verification and Identification researching technology to develop a language ‘fingerprint’
The use of voice in biometric recognition offers new
of online personas.11 These are of interest to law
opportunities in various domains.
enforcement agencies as a way to identify cybercriminals.
Automatic Speaker Verification (ASV)  Speaker Identification Integrated Project: in response
ASV uses voice instead of a password as a means of to a European Commission call93 (€15m funding), a
verifying identity to access a system. In the UK it is used consortium of 17 European partners is developing
commercially, for example by Santander and Barclays83 and transnational technology to identify criminals.94
will be used by Atom Bank (one of the first internet-only UK-

POST is an office of both Houses of Parliament, charged with providing independent and balanced analysis of policy issues that have a basis in science and technology.
POST is grateful to Sarah Foxen for researching this briefing, to the Arts & Humanities Research Council for funding her parliamentary fellowship, and to all contributors
and reviewers. For further information on this subject, please contact the co-author, Dr Sarah Bunn. Parliamentary Copyright 2015. Image copyright iStockphoto
POSTnote 509 September 2015 Forensic Language Analysis Page 5

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92 'Assuming identities Online' – Description, Development and Ethical
Implications.
93 European Commission: Community Research and Development Information
Service.
94 Speaker Identification Integrated Project.