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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 11:3 (2020) ► pp.415–439

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The thought processes of criminals

A semantic perspective

 | Bar-Ilan University
Published online: 31 July 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.17014.dil
Abstract
This study examines what may be learned from a semantic analysis of the discourse of criminal groups about elements of the cognitive map of the group’s members. The primary group examined comprised sex offenders who victimized children. The findings were compared with another criminal group – murderers. To examine their shared linguistic characteristics, a study was made of passages from 40 transcribed subject interviews, in which they tell their life stories. The function words from the passages were classified according to semantic fields, in order to identify what psychological and sociological insights can be gained from their use, a similar study was made of normative men’s stories. The semantic fields unique to the sex offenders are presented in this paper, and are compared with the fields used by the other two groups, together with a discussion of the significance of the words included therein.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Semantic analysis for the purpose of personality characterization
    • 2.2Sexual victimizers of children
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instruments
    • 3.3Procedure
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Semantic characteristics of sex offenders
    • 5.2Semantic characteristics of murderers
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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