Operation Heron – Latent topic changes in an abusive letter series

Abstract

The paper presents a two-part forensic linguistic analysis of an historic collection of abuse letters, sent to individuals in the public eye and individuals’ private homes between 2007-2009. We employ the technique of structural topic modelling (STM) to identify distinctions in the core topics of the letters, gauging the value of this relatively underused methodology in forensic linguistics. Four key topics were identified in the letters, Politics A and B, Healthcare, and Immigration, and their coherence, correlation and shifts in topic evaluated. Following the STM, a qualitative corpus linguistic analysis was undertaken, coding concordance lines according to topic, with the reliability between coders tested. This coding demonstrated that various connected statements within the same topic tend to gain or lose prevalence over time, and ultimately confirmed the consistency of content within the four topics identified through STM throughout the letter series. The discussion and conclusions to the paper reflect on the findings as well as considering the utility of these methodologies for linguistics and forensic linguistics in particular. The study demonstrates real value in revisiting a forensic linguistic dataset such as this to test and develop methodologies for the field

Divisions: ?? 53981500Jl ??
College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Centre for Health and Society
Additional Information: © Edinburgh University Press
Uncontrolled Keywords: abusive letter,corpus linguistics,forensic linguistics,semantic tagging,topic modelling
Publication ISSN: 1755-1676
Last Modified: 27 Mar 2024 08:29
Date Deposited: 07 Apr 2021 13:43
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.eup ... 6/cor.2022.0255 (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2022-08-31
Published Online Date: 2022-08-31
Accepted Date: 2021-03-26
Authors: Busso, Lucia (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-5665-771X)
Petyko, Marton (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-1897-9435)
Atkins, Sarah (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-3481-5681)
Grant, Tim (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-5155-8413)

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