The Forensic Study of Oral Speech: The Current Status and Development Prospects

The study aims to consider the possibilities of the forensic examination of oral speech in various sections of forensics, including the possibility of the practical use of the typological approach in forensic tactics. The main research method was analysis. The features of the behaviour of participants in investigative actions belonging to various psychological types were analysed. Oral speech is of particular importance in the conduct of investigative actions that have a communicative aspect, such as interrogation, confrontation and presentation for identification based on voice and speech. Signs of speech are individual, which determines their forensic significance. In recent decades, forensic science formed a new integrative field of scientific knowledge in the forensic theory of speech, at the intersection of psychology and linguistics. This line of research is based on the statement that human oral speech is a rich source of information about the most diverse signs that characterise the speaker. Information about these signs is established on the basis of the analysis of vocabulary, syntax, accent and many other features of oral speech. Studies of speech, language and communication now occupy a large place in world psychological science. Psycholinguistics has become a powerful and authoritative research field. Along with theoretical fundamental research of speech, there are developments of its practical side, i.e., applied psycholinguistics. The latter deals with the problems associated with the functioning of speech in people's practical life, studies speech communication in people's personal spheres and in their professional activities. The field of applied psycholinguistics is quite broad, which is due to the fact that speech is woven into all human activities, included in the vast majority of people's social and personal contacts. The authors consider options for using speech features for forensic purposes in the framework of three different sections of forensic science. Participating in traceability, in reflection of events, recorded oral speech becomes the carrier of forensic information that is necessary to identify and solve crimes. Another tendency in the analysis of speech behaviour is noted: the use of a typological approach, which allows individualising tactics in the production of investigative actions. In addition, features of the behaviour of participants in investigative actions with opposite typological features (hyperthymic and hypothymic) are considered.

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