The Center of Criminal Justice System Research Development (PERSADA UB) held a workshop on Forensic Linguistics and Forensic Psychology on Saturday (7/8/2021). This activity aims to provide knowledge for practitioners, legal academics, and other researchers related forensic science.
Remind that the application of Forensic Linguistics and Forensic Psychology can assist the criminal justice process related to psychological autopsies, interviews, investigations of perpetrators, to criminal profiling, so it is important for practitioners and academics to know more about how forensic science works as an auxiliary science in criminal law.
The workshop, which was attended by around 400 participants online, presented three speakers, namely Fachrizal Afandi, PhD – Head of PERSADA UB, Nur Indah Jazilah, MA, expert in Forensic Linguistics and Nael Sumampouw, M, Psi, forensic psychologist, APSIFOR administrator.
Alex Argo Hernowo, S.H. in his speech said that the existence of forensic science for practitioners is an interesting thing, because the presence of forensic science is able to explore further related to the truth of a statement presented by a witness or defendant in trial.
In the investigation process as well as in the examination of witnesses in the trial, not a few were carried away in an opinion that the disclosure of the truth was not based on facts.
So that forensic science can help related to proving whether a statement of witnesses and the suspect at trial is in accordance with the facts.
Nur Inda Jazilah, M.A said that in the legal process, especially the trial process, forensic linguistics is very necessary and becomes one of the auxiliary sciences for solving a case.
“Forensic linguistics was first used by Jan Svartvik, PhD in his report on the Timothy John Evans case in 1968. This case initiated the discovery of linguistic fingerprints, which means that everyone has different sentence formulations, including in writing words and using punctuation marks,” said Nur Inda.
In the case investigation, it was found that there were indications of editing, namely the statement made by the suspect was not the same as what was written by the investigator in the Investigation Report (BAP).
This becomes one of the problems in the justice system in Indonesia, where it is possible for investigators to intervene in the writing of the Investigation Report (BAP) which causes differences in information between the suspect’s statement and the BAP report.
From a psychological point of view, Nael Sumampouw, M.Psi., M.Sc., a psychologist at the University of Indonesia said that there are differences in how investigators examine a case.
He said this difference was caused by differences in environment and behavior, for example, investigators who are used to watching the CSI series will tend to be critical and have thoughts like the CSI series in examining the cases they handle.
Therefore, forensic psychology is used in the judicial process to see whether the statements of witnesses, victims and even legal investigators are credible or not.
The administrator of the Association of Forensic Psychology (APSIFOR) said that it is necessary to involve a psychologist in a judicial process not only at the time of expert witness statement, but a psychologist should be able to follow the journey of a case in order to provide advice in a case.
It can also reduce the incidence of miscarriage justice (cases of wrong law). Miscarriage justice can arise due to several things, namely: (1) false statement; (2) False confession; (3) Misconduct, wrong procedure, bias; (4) Pre-trial publicy (case published before trial).
Another important point expressed by Nael Sumampouw is memory, which in his presentation said that “memory works like a camera recorder that records what and is able to play back the event”.
In its development, a legal event tends to occur in the past which is then examined in the present, so that there is a lag between that time which causes many things to happen and makes memory more relevant. For this reason, caution is needed in analyzing information in the law enforcement process.
Meanwhile, on the same occasion, Fachrizal Afandi, PhD said that the criminal justice system is defined as a government network that has the aim of managing the process of convicting suspects or defendants.
So that the basis of the criminal justice system there are various interrelated pillars consisting of law enforcement, forensic experts, courts, to correctional institutions.
The criminal justice system is intended to regulate and manage convicts and suspects by keeping a security, order and respect for human rights.
The role of experts, especially in the field of forensics, is needed to provide information and narrate evidence in order to explain the facts of the material truth.
Forensic science as an application of scientific principles and technology in the legal process, where scientific methods are used as a basis for analyzing evidence, information and data collected from evidence which are then used during legal proceedings at all levels of justice. [Humas UB/ Trans. Iir]
