Criminal Investigation Techniques: The Role of Forensic Linguistics in Digital Evidence

Abstract

The development of digital technology presents opportunities as well as challenges in law enforcement, especially through the increasing use of digital evidence in criminal investigations. The complexity of digital evidence forms that include short messages, emails, social media uploads, and encrypted conversations requires adaptive and multidisciplinary methods of analysis. Forensic linguistics exists as an interdisciplinary field that combines language studies with law, with important contributions in author identification, communication pattern analysis, lie detection, and interpretation of hidden meanings in digital texts. This research aims to provide a comprehensive synthesis of the role of forensic linguistics in the handling of digital evidence through the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach.

The literature was collected from a variety of reputable databases using relevant keywords, then selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The analysis was carried out with a thematic approach to identify methodological trends, findings contributions, and challenges faced. The results of the study show that there are two main approaches in digital forensic linguistics: a qualitative approach based on context-rich discourse analysis, and a quantitative approach based on computation and artificial intelligence that offers high accuracy. Case studies show that language styles, persuasive motives, and microlinguistic patterns play a role in uncovering the modus operandi of perpetrators, while stylometry, n-grams, and machine learning algorithms are able to achieve an accuracy rate of more than 90% in authorship attribution and criminal vocabulary detection.

This synthesis confirms that the main strength of digital forensic linguistics lies in the combination of the two approaches. The development of integrative models that combine linguistic interpretation with computational modeling is key to the effectiveness of criminal investigations in the digital age. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to strengthening investigative practices, improving the validity of language evidence in court, and opening up further research opportunities related to forensic linguistic methodological standards on digital evidence