Introduction: The UNABOM Investigation
Samuel Larner · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · 2014
Increasingly, forensic linguists are using the web to generate evidence in cases of forensic authorship analysis. A striking example of this occurred during the trial of the Unabomber — a prolific serial bomber — when the web was searched to determine the distinctiveness of a set of idiolectal co-selections. However, to date, questions have not been asked about whether the web can be used reliably in forensic contexts. Therefore, using the Unabomber trial evidence as a case study, this chapter discusses the notion of idiolect and introduces research which explores two issues: (1) whether idiolectal co-selections can be used as a marker of authorship, and (2) whether the web is reliable enough to be used to produce forensic evidence.