Sonja Bitzer
2026
A Computational Forensic Linguistic Analysis of Narrative and Question-Answer Structures in Italian Police Interrogation Transcripts
Romane Werner | Thomas François | Sonja Bitzer
Proceedings of the 19th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 4: Student Research Workshop)
Romane Werner | Thomas François | Sonja Bitzer
Proceedings of the 19th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 4: Student Research Workshop)
Police interrogation transcripts are key evidential documents, yet their linguistic form is rarely systematically analyzed, despite directly shaping judicial interpretation. This study presents the first computational forensic linguistic profiling of Italian police transcripts, focusing on the two transcription formats used in practice: narrative monologues and question-answer (Q-A) transcripts. Using automated extraction of 147 linguistic features, we analyze 50 authentic transcripts against a multi-genre Italian reference corpus to support more transparent evaluation of police transcripts by clarifying how transcription formats systematically shape evidential interpretation in judicial contexts. Narrative monologues exhibit deeper syntactic embedding, higher past-tense usage, and more first-person singular verbs, supporting coherent and temporally ordered recounting of events. Q-A transcripts, by contrast, show longer subordinate chains, more clausal complements, and higher pronoun frequency, reflecting interactive turn-taking and procedural dynamics. Rather than aiming at predictive classification, the study reveals the linguistic mechanisms shaping transcription formats and demonstrates that structurally and legally informed features reliably distinguish them. Computational models reliably capture genre-specific cues, offering scalable, empirically grounded insights into transcription practices and evidential reliability.