Die relevansie van forensies-linguistiese getuienis vir doeleindes van persoonsidentifikasie by witboordjiemisdade

Abstract

White-collar crime is a prominent and growing concern in South Africa and the need to combat this crime is great. The increase in white-collar crime, the advances in the methods used to commit these crimes and the rapid change in the way people communicate and do business call for innovation in the investigation and combatting of these crimes. White-collar crime entails business, or financial crime, and is, therefore, investigated by means of forensic accountancy. This entails the collection and presentation of financial information in such a way that it will be admissible in court. However, forensic accountants are increasingly confronted with situations which demand expertise in areas outside the field of accountancy. A specific example is person identification based on texts relevant to the investigation, for example, notes or correspondence between accomplices. The authorship of such documents is often a matter to be solved in order to identify suspects and/or compile a paper trail. Unfortunately, hand-writing analysis is no longer a relevant method to identify authors, as society today use mostly electronic instead of hand-written communication. There is, thus, a need for a more suitable alternative for author identification in order to stay abreast of technological progress. Forensic linguistics seems to be a suitable method because it entails the analysis of language, regardless the form in which the language appears. This study focused on research of the relevance of forensic linguistics for person identification in white-collar crime and the admissibility of forensic linguistic evidence in terms of the appropriate South African legal rules, as well as foreign jurisdictions, in order to establish whether testimony will effectively contribute to rulings regarding author identity. The terms ‘forensic linguistics’ and ‘white-collar crime’ were described in detail and the study also expanded on the relevance of person identification and, consequently, forensic linguistics, in the investigation of white-collar crime. The research ultimately showed that forensic linguistics offers an innovative solution for the combatting, investigation and persecution of white-collar crime when forensic accountants need assistance in cases where person identification is required.