Threatening Language and Its Link

¶ … threatening language and its link to actual acts of violence has helped us reach some conclusions which will be discussed in this section as results of our study. Our extensive literature review shows that threatening language, unless proven to cause harm to someone, is protected by first amendment under freedom of speech clause. However once threatening language leads to psychological or physical harm, it can be sued and seen as a criminal act.

Our initial question was about what composes threatening language and later we studied levels of escalation and how it leads to violent actions. We shall now present a brief review of what we have found and see how it relates to some of the theories of linguistics we mentioned earlier in the paper.

Threatening language is difficult to ascertain because it can range from shouting at someone in a regular fashion in a regular setting or it can be very detailed and graphic saying what a person would do in case the target doesn't comply with their order. Usually it is not easy even for the law enforcement to pin point what actually is threatening language and what kind of threatening language would lead to violent actions. Courts in the U.S.

have thus established their own definitions of what constitutes threatening language but there is no standard definition. However they use the reasonability test which means if a reasonable person sees a certain communication as violent or threatening then it is considered to be a threat. During the course of threatening communication, there are some levels achieved and it is important to see how the communication is escalating or de-escalating.

In case of de-escalation, it means there is a milder tone with each new message or communication and aggressor is turning favorable towards the target or due to some factor has decided not to threaten anymore. However it is escalation which is more important to study because this is what can lead to violent actions. Within threatening communication are clear signs of escalation for someone who is looking for them. First comes the point where a threat in made and is called posturing.

This is for example when a person says, "if you report this action, I will come and get you." This sounds threatening but is the first step where aggressor is showing intent. The next step is when it gets more graphic like when the same aggressor says, "you didn't listen to me, did you. I will wait for you outside your workplace and beat the hell out of you." This leads to the actual act of violence. These are the levels of escalation within threatening communication.

In order to be able to determine levels of escalation, we need to study the language carefully to see which level has been achieved with latest communication. Some theories of linguistics may help a person determine if language is threatening and if it will actually lead to a violent action. For example law enforcement has been using what is called psycholinguistic theories to figure out levels of escalation and to determine criminal intent.

Many theories exist and as we mentioned in our paper, there is a theory where sentence construction is carefully studied and analyzed to see how is meant by the threat. This is done with comparison to past communication between the aggressor and the target and other examples available in separate cases.

For example if there exist four letters by the aggressor sent on various dates, law enforcement will study the language used in all four to see how and if the conflict has been escalating or if there is a sign of de-escalation. In a very recent case in Florida, a teenager sent threatening text messages to his former girlfriend' friend before coming to her school and almost beating her to death with spiked steel shoes.

These text messages were later carefully studied by law enforcement to figure out the offender's state of mind, his intent to harm and target's level of participation in provoking the aggressor. The same text messages can be used to see how escalation takes place within threatening communication. It must be understood that threatening communication doesn't have to span days or weeks, it can escalate within hours. Popularly known as the "text-rage" case, this case is a very appropriate example of threatening language, escalation and how it leads to violent action.

Treacy was a 9th grader who received a message from Ratley saying, she doesn't want him to see her friend Kyla anymore. One message leads to another and the conflict escalates and finally culminates in a very.