The main aim of this paper is to present previous research in the field of forensic linguistics and handwriting analysis as well as the possibility of determining the sex, age, social class, education, handedness, and some psychological characteristics of the person who is the author of a threat, letter, message or other document which is of a forensic relevance. The second aim is to explain linguistic concepts such as common language, dialect, sociolect, and idiolect. The phenomenon of linguistic variation, along with restrictive and elaborated codes as types of language used by people of different socio-economic and educational background were decribed, as well. Attention is also paid to the detection of plagiarism, based on new insights from forensic linguistics.

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