Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack Unterweger
Forensic authorship profiling aims to extract socio-demographic information about the authors of anonymous texts based on linguistic features found in their written texts. One aspect of such a profile that is not usually considered is an analysis of the author’s personality traits. The present study...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Forensic Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/3/1/6 |
| _version_ | 1797611665141792768 |
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| author | Karoline Marko Ida Leibetseder |
| author_facet | Karoline Marko Ida Leibetseder |
| author_sort | Karoline Marko |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Forensic authorship profiling aims to extract socio-demographic information about the authors of anonymous texts based on linguistic features found in their written texts. One aspect of such a profile that is not usually considered is an analysis of the author’s personality traits. The present study intends to provide a starting point for research into this area. This will be achieved through the investigation of linguistic features reflective of the conditions of psychopathy and malignant narcissism in 14 personal letters of the killer Jack Unterweger. Previous research in the field of psychology has largely examined “psychopathic” and “narcissistic” language in spoken conversations rather than written ones, or in texts produced for the respective study rather than in naturally occurring texts. The findings of the present study thus diverge from previous findings in some aspects (e.g., the use of first-person pronouns), while they provide support for others (e.g., the incoherence of thoughts and changes in topics). |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:31:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5663ce4fa48d4109a1a8bab64e4c3ff8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-6756 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:31:55Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Forensic Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-5663ce4fa48d4109a1a8bab64e4c3ff82023-11-17T11:08:30ZengMDPI AGForensic Sciences2673-67562023-02-0131456810.3390/forensicsci3010006Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack UnterwegerKaroline Marko0Ida Leibetseder1Institute of English Studies, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, AustriaInstitute of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Criminology/Hans Gross Centre for Interdisciplinary Criminal Sciences, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, AustriaForensic authorship profiling aims to extract socio-demographic information about the authors of anonymous texts based on linguistic features found in their written texts. One aspect of such a profile that is not usually considered is an analysis of the author’s personality traits. The present study intends to provide a starting point for research into this area. This will be achieved through the investigation of linguistic features reflective of the conditions of psychopathy and malignant narcissism in 14 personal letters of the killer Jack Unterweger. Previous research in the field of psychology has largely examined “psychopathic” and “narcissistic” language in spoken conversations rather than written ones, or in texts produced for the respective study rather than in naturally occurring texts. The findings of the present study thus diverge from previous findings in some aspects (e.g., the use of first-person pronouns), while they provide support for others (e.g., the incoherence of thoughts and changes in topics).https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/3/1/6forensic linguisticscorpusauthorshipprofilingpsychological disorders |
| spellingShingle | Karoline Marko Ida Leibetseder Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack Unterweger Forensic Sciences forensic linguistics corpus authorship profiling psychological disorders |
| title | Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack Unterweger |
| title_full | Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack Unterweger |
| title_fullStr | Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack Unterweger |
| title_full_unstemmed | Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack Unterweger |
| title_short | Linguistic Indicators of Psychopathy and Malignant Narcissism in the Personal Letters of the Austrian Killer Jack Unterweger |
| title_sort | linguistic indicators of psychopathy and malignant narcissism in the personal letters of the austrian killer jack unterweger |
| topic | forensic linguistics corpus authorship profiling psychological disorders |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/3/1/6 |
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