The book Forensic Linguistics in Australia: Origins, Progress and Prospects, by Diana Eades, Helen Fraser and Georgina Heydon has just been published online by Cambridge University Press.

It presents an account of forensic linguistics in Australia since the first expert linguistic evidence in 1959, through early work in the 1970s-1980s, the defining of the discipline in the 1990s, and into the current era.

It starts with a consideration of some widespread misconceptions about language that affect the field and some problematic ideologies in the law.

The authors’ report of forensic linguists’ work is structured in terms of the linguistic, interactional and sociocultural contexts of the language data being analysed, whether in expert evidence, in research, or in practical applications of linguistics in a range of legal settings. 

It concludes by highlighting mutual engagement between forensic linguistic practitioners and both the judiciary and legal scholars, and outlines some of the key factors which support a critical forensic linguistics approach in much of the work in the authors’ country.

Important: The work is available for free download until 7 June from the publisher’s website here.

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Hat tip to Diane Eades for flagging the offer.