The Challenges of Forensic Linguistic Analysis of False Testimony

Galyashina Elena Igorevna

doi:10.15405/ejsbs.302

Abstract

The present paper arises from wider research which focused on various manifestations of destructive and malicious speech behavior in spontaneous oral or written dialogs, related to the processes of information concealment and falsification in police interviews and court testimonies. A number of analytical methods were used to generate this paper: a retrospective analysis of scientific literature, comparative legal and logical analysis, extrapolation methods, and content analysis. Despite numerous experimental researches devoted to acoustic-phonetic or psycholinguistic features of lies, their results are not sufficiently reliable for forensic purposes as the expert report should not rely on assumptions. The author disputes the evidence admissibility of experts’ conclusions about utterances implying speech parameters correlating with lies detected via psycholinguistic examination in oral speech audio or video recording of a police interview or a court testimony. Forensic psycholinguistic methods and comprehensive algorithms used in some forensic experts’ reports to detect speech signs of lying demonstrate a great variety that contradicts with the principals of evidence admissibility. The insufficient development of the currently used expert approach and the lack of a unified methodology for solving expert tasks on a strictly scientific basis creates a demand for developing comprehensive methods for studying lies on the basis of forensic speech science and cognitive theory.

Highlights

The false testimony of a witness, a plaintiff, an expert or an interpreter in the criminal proceedings is an action directed against the interests of justice
In order to answer the research question, a number of tasks was undertaken. These involved monitoring of contemporary judicial practice of Russian criminal proceedings in the database SudAkt - the Internet resource of court decisions, judicial and regulatory documents of the Russian Federation – in order to identify cases in which expert conclusions about the presence of lie signs in the testimony or in a police interview were admitted as evidence in court; analysis of written expert reports for their validity; systematization of distinguishing linguistic-acoustic characteristics of speech utterances with specific focus to lies/deception within the context of giving false testimony
In spite of the experimental data gathered by research in this area, the results cannot be relied upon to prove, without a doubt, the occurrence of lies/deception in a statement which can be accepted as an admissible evidence of false testimony

Summary

Introduction

The false testimony of a witness, a plaintiff, an expert or an interpreter in the criminal proceedings is an action directed against the interests of justice. Judges and investigative agencies lack knowledge about the utilization of forensic methods to detect false statements and the mechanisms used to generate such statements. Forensic linguists and psychology experts’ practice of speech lie detection is rather ambiguous. Theoretical and practical problems are associated with the absence or incorrect interpretation of the subject, object, tasks and methods of this expertise. Studies aimed at identifying signs of possible deception or "falsity" of information provided by participants in judicial or investigative processes are conducted contrary to existing legal requirements, most often in a comprehensive manner (Engalychev et al, 2016)

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