Ransom note
Definition
A written or recorded communication from a person who has taken something (a person, property, or information) and is demanding compensation or compliance in exchange for its safe return or non-disclosure. The term is extended to extortion and blackmail demands in contemporary forensic usage.
Related terms
- Authenticity analysis
- The preliminary question: is the note what it claims to be (an external demand by an unknown party) or is it fabricated?...
- Comparison corpus
- The body of known writings from a candidate author used to characterise their stylistic profile. In the Ramsey case, the comparison corpora...
- Fabrication marker
- A feature in a purported ransom note that is inconsistent with what genuine ransom communications contain, suggesting the note was produced by...
- Idiolect
- The language variety specific to an individual, comprising their characteristic vocabulary, syntactic preferences, spelling habits, punctuation patterns, and discourse-level style. Authorship attribution...
- Register
- The variety of language associated with a particular situation, task, or relationship. Register varies along dimensions of formality, technicality, and interactional mode....
Explained in
- Ransom Note Analysis: Features, Authenticity, and AttributionA written or recorded communication from a person who has taken something (a person, property, or information) and is demanding compensation or compliance in e...