Review of Creating Language Crimes: How Law Enforcement Uses (and Misuses) Language By Roger W. Shuy
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2007
Publication Title
American Speech
Volume
82
Issue
3
First Page
304
Last Page
307
Abstract
As he states in his preface, Shuy draws on his 30+ years as a linguistics professor at Georgetown University and his 25+ years as an expert witness and legal consultant to create this text that spans the mundane and the riveting, the commonplace and the esoterica of forensic linguistics. In so doing, his book “describes twelve actual cases in which alleged crimes were actually created by the use of various conversational strategies employed by law enforcement and its representatives, where no such crime is actually indicated by the language evidence” (12). When we read the transcripts associated with these cases, we often find that the linguistic evidence exonerates the suspect and implicates bad behavior on the part of the investigators and cooperating witnesses. Divided into four sections, Creating Language Crimes addresses general legal and discourse concepts, explores linguistic elements of undercover work, and raises implications for police investigators, lawyers, and linguists alike.
Recommended Citation
Bramlett, Frank, "Review of Creating Language Crimes: How Law Enforcement Uses (and Misuses) Language By Roger W. Shuy" (2007). English Faculty Publications. 12.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/englishfacpub/12
Comments
© 2007 Duke University Press. The original published version can be found here: http://americanspeech.dukejournals.org/content/82/3/304.full.pdf+html?sid=b7a65cd9-f6fd-4ae9-8388-816eeb4cc749.