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Review
. 2024 Jun 11:9:100481.
doi: 10.1016/j.fsisyn.2024.100481. eCollection 2024.

Stylometry and forensic science: A literature review

Valentina Cammarota  1 , Silvia Bozza  1   2 , Claude-Alain Roten  3 , Franco Taroni  1
Affiliations
Review

Stylometry and forensic science: A literature review

Valentina Cammarota et al. Forensic Sci Int Synerg. .

Abstract

The article focuses on a careful description of literature on stylometry and on its potential use in forensic science. The state of the art of stylometry is summarized to illustrate the history and the scientific foundation of this discipline. However, the study conducted reveals that there are still some key unresolved aspects that require a response from the academic world. The paper introduces the readers to those issues that need to be tackled for stylometry to be accepted as a forensic discipline. In particular, a coherent probabilistic procedure to assess the probative value of the results obtained through this methodology is largely absent. This gap should be filled properly by applying criteria recommended by international organizations such as the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes. Solutions do exist and will allow a better integration of stylometry in forensic science, favouring the acceptance of this scientific technical method in judicial proceedings.

Keywords: Authorship attribution; Forensic stylistics; Stylometry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

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    1. Pavelec D., Justino E., Oliveira L.S. Author identification using stylometric features. Inteligencia Artificial. Revista Iberoamericana de Inteligencia Artificial. 2007;11:59–65.
    1. Rudman J. In: Encyclo- Pedia of Language & Linguistics. second ed. Brown Keith., editor. Elsevier; Oxford: 2006. Authorship attribution: statistical and Computational methods; pp. 611–617.
    1. Juola P. In: Advances in Digital Forensics III, IFIP — the International Federation for Information Processing. Craiger P., Shenoi S., editors. Springer; New York, NY: 2007. Future Trends in authorship attribution; pp. 119–132.
    1. Ellen D., Day S., Davies C. fourth ed. CRC Press; Boca Raton: 2018. Scientific Examination of Documents: Methods and Techniques.

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