Forensic psychiatric report and expert positioning: semiotic-narrative analysis of four forensic psychiatric reports in a femicide case

Abstract

In recent years, narrative criminology has begun to extend its field of research to judicial narratives, emphasizing their conflictual nature and performative aspects. Within this framework, a study was conducted on four forensic psychiatric reports in the judicial trial of an author of femicide. The research aims to explore the expert’s positioning according to his role (expert of the judge, of the public prosecutor, of the defendant’s and the victim’s relatives attorneys), to the characteristics attributed by the expert to the perpetrator and to himself, and finally to the global discursive context in which the expert is immersed. Methodologically, a semiotic-narrative analysis inspired by Roland Barthes' theory of codes was carried out. The results of the research highlight difference in positioning among experts and identify individual styles, showing how even expert narratives – grounded in scientific knowledge – express a difficult balance between competitive instances, defense mechanisms and desires for legitimacy.