Identifying Discourse Markers of Power and Powerlessness in the Discourse of Iran's Criminal Courts

Forensic linguistics, as an emerging and impactful discipline, plays a crucial role in analyzing written and spoken discourse in court cases and facilitating judicial processes, from investigation and case filing to sentencing. As a branch of applied linguistics, it assists researchers in analyzing the discourse of court actors and uncovering the structure and style of courtroom documentation. The present study examines the conversations between judges and defendants in Iran's criminal courts through the lens of the theory of power and powerlessness (Aghagolzadeh, 2012; Gibbons, 1994, 2003). The research employs a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques. The primary research question focuses on identifying the frequency of speech patterns of judges and defendants in 29 well-known and prominent cases. The analysis of these patterns in the conversations between judges and defendants, from the perspective of forensic linguistics, constitutes the core of this study. Data were collected from courtroom conversations available on the Aparat platform and transcribed. Qualitative analysis involved calculating the frequency and percentage of discourse components used by judges and defendants, while inferential analysis compared their discourse to detect significant differences using the chi-square statistical test, following the assessment of data reliability and validity. Regarding the variable "power," the findings revealed that among the indicators of power, judges demonstrated a statistically significant difference from defendants in the use of two markers: "use of suggestive sentences, leading and closed questions" and "use of imperative sentences." In the category of powerlessness, defendants showed a significant difference from judges in all indicators except "reference to a source of power." The results of this study can enhance judges' training, both pre-service and in-service, by improving their knowledge of linguistics and discourse analysis.