Журнал судебно-медицинских исследований

Multilingual Determinants as Forensic tool in Identifying Persons of Interest in Criminal Justice System in the Philippines

Abstract

Benjamin Mendillo Jr

Primarily, this paper shall present the efficacy of forensic linguistic tools in establishing the identity of the person of interest by the unique multicultural determinants in the commission of the crime. Secondly, this will also highlight the practical description and analysis of forensic linguistics, more particularly on linguistic dialectology, which refers to the study of dialects in a methodological manner based on anthropological information. It shall elaborate on authentic case crime transcripts in assessing the tone, diction, and other linguistic features unique in a multicultural setting more particularly in assessing threat in establishing leads in identifying persons of interest by law enforcements. Lastly, the synthesis of the unique multicultural construct that the court may consider to be a determining evidence of a crime. In the Philippine context, the term Person of interest is commonly used by law enforcement to identify someone involved in a criminal investigation that has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It is used as equivalent for suspect. In a wider perspective, forensic linguistics covers these persons of interest by establishing proven facts as required by law in presenting compelling evidence.