Curricula: Journal of Teaching and Learning http://dx.
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Published by Lembaga Layanan Pendidikan Tinggi (LLDIKTI) Wilayah X
RESEARCH ARTICLE
THE EVALUATION OF INVESTIGATORAoS INVESTIGATION REPORTS USING APPRAISAL FRAMEWORK Sarma Panggabean1.
Ernawati Br Surbakti2.
Yessy Octaviana3.
Martua Reynhat Sitanggang Gusar4 1,3,4Faculty of Teacher Training and Education.
HKBP Nommensen University.
Jl.
Dr.
Sutomo No.
4-A.
Medan, 20217 Faculty of Teacher Training and Education.
Lhokseumawe State Polytechnic University, 24301
Article History Received 5 March 2026
Revised 9 April 2026
Accepted 23 April 2026
ABSTRACT
Keywords Appraisal.
Investigation report.
SPC.
Attitude.
Positioning Legal discourse, specifically Investigation Reports (Berita Acara Pemeriksaan/BAP), serves as a critical evidentiary foundation in the criminal justice system.
Ideally, these documents must embody strict neutrality and objectivity to ensure fair legal proceedings.
However, a significant research problem persists: the potential infiltration of subjective evaluative language that may compromise legal clarity, fairness, and procedural justice.
Despite their profound legal weight, there is limited empirical understanding of how linguistic appraisal mechanisms operate within various BAP types.
Unchecked evaluative language risks introducing bias, manipulating narrative perspectives, and creating legal ambiguities that could adversely affect suspect rights and judicial outcomes.
This gap necessitates a critical linguistic examination to uncover hidden subjectivities within ostensibly objective legal texts.
Consequently, this study aims to evaluate the language used in Investigation Reports by applying Appraisal Theory to analyze Attitude and Positioning patterns.
This research employed a qualitative descriptive design supported by corpus analysis using the Simple Concordance Program (SCP).
The data consisted of eight types of Investigation Reports obtained from the Galang Sub-district Police Station.
The analysis focused on identifying evaluative lexical items and their distribution across report types.
ensure analytical reliability, appraisal categories were classified based on predefined criteria, and cross-checking was conducted to reduce subjectivity.
The findings indicate that negative Attitude dominates the Suspect Investigation Reports .
7%), while negative Positioning is most prominent in Confiscation Reports .
2%).
In general.
Suspect Reports show the highest frequency of appraisal usage .
99%), suggesting a high degree of evaluative language in representing events.
These findings highlight the importance of linguistic awareness in drafting investigation reports, particularly in maintaining neutrality and clarity to avoid potential The prevalence of negative appraisal suggests an inherent bias that could influence judicial outcomes, underscoring the urgent need for standardized linguistic protocols in legal documentation to uphold justice and procedural integrity.
Introduction Legal discourse, specifically Investigation Reports (Berita Acara Pemeriksaan/BAP), serves as a critical evidentiary foundation in the criminal justice system.
Ideally, these documents must embody strict neutrality and objectivity to ensure fair legal proceedings.
However, a significant research problem persists: the potential infiltration of subjective evaluative language that may compromise legal clarity, fairness, and procedural justice.
Despite their profound legal weight, there is limited empirical understanding of how linguistic appraisal mechanisms operate within various BAP types.
Unchecked evaluative language risks introducing bias, manipulating narrative perspectives, and creating legal ambiguities that could adversely affect suspect rights and judicial outcomes.
This gap necessitates a critical linguistic examination to uncover hidden subjectivities within ostensibly objective legal texts.
Consequently, this study aims to evaluate the language used in Investigation Reports by applying Appraisal Theory to analyze Attitude and Positioning patterns.
This research employed a qualitative descriptive design Corresponding Author: Sarma Panggabean.
Email: sarmapanggabean@uhn,.
HKBP Nommensen University Medan.
Medan.
North Sumatera.
Indonesia.
A 2026 Penggabean, et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, allowing unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided proper credit is given to the original authors.
supported by corpus analysis using the Simple Concordance Program (SCP).
The data consisted of eight types of Investigation Reports obtained from the Galang Sub-district Police Station.
The analysis focused on identifying evaluative lexical items and their distribution across report types.
To ensure analytical reliability, appraisal categories were classified based on predefined criteria, and cross-checking was conducted to reduce subjectivity.
The findings indicate that negative Attitude dominates the Suspect Investigation Reports .
7%), while negative Positioning is most prominent in Confiscation Reports .
2%).
In general.
Suspect Reports show the highest frequency of appraisal usage .
99%), suggesting a high degree of evaluative language in representing events.
These findings highlight the importance of linguistic awareness in drafting investigation reports, particularly in maintaining neutrality and clarity to avoid potential misinterpretation.
The prevalence of negative appraisal suggests an inherent bias that could influence judicial outcomes, underscoring the urgent need for standardized linguistic protocols in legal documentation to uphold justice and procedural Materials and Methods The Framework of Appraisal To address the complexities of how investigators frame information, this research utilizes Appraisal Theory.
Appraisal is an extension of the interpersonal metafunction within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).
provides a sophisticated, structured framework for analyzing how language users in this case, police investigators use words to share emotions, pass judgments, and value various phenomena(Rasheed, 2.
The Framework of Appraisal was primarily developed by Martin and his colleagues (Martin, 2000, 2003.
Martin & White, 2.
as a means of mapping the AuevaluativeAy territory of language.
While other scholars like Biber .
and Hunston .
focused on AustanceAy and Auevaluation,Ay MartinAos framework is particularly robust for forensic discourse because it categorizes interpersonal meaning into three distinct subsystems:
Attitude.
Engagement (Positionin.
, and Graduation.
Attitude: This subsystem is concerned with our feelings and emotional reactions (Prastikawati, 2.
It is further divided into: Concerned with feelings, including emotional reactions (Affec.
, judgments of character (Judgmen.
, and evaluation of things (Appreciatio.
Engagement: This deals with the Auplay of voices.
Ay It examines how writers/investigators position themselves in relation to other viewpoints.
For instance (Manzella, 2.
, does the report state Authe suspect admitted.
Ay .
uggesting trut.
or Authe suspect claimed.
Ay .
uggesting doub.
? Deals with the play of voices around opinions how writers position themselves in relation to other viewpoints.
Graduation: This focuses on the AuvolumeAy or intensity of the appraisal.
It looks at how speakers amplify or diminish their evaluations (Vo & Viet Le, 2.
Auhe was extremely aggressiveAy vs.
Auhe was somewhat upsetA.
Focuses on the AuvolumeAy of the appraisal how speakers amplify or diminish the intensity of their evaluations.
In a police report, these elements are rarely neutral.
The investigatorAos choice of an adjective a reporting verb can fundamentally alter a prosecutorAos perception of a suspectAos credibility(Jol & Stommel, 2.
By utilizing the System Concordance Program (SCP), this study seeks to evaluate the investigatorAos language, attitude, and positioning to determine if the suspectAos answers were recorded faithfully or skewed to meet institutional .
Authe suspect admittedAy vs.
Authe suspect claimedA.
can fundamentally change the prosecutor's perception of the suspect's credibility.
Methods This study employed a qualitative descriptive design with a discourse-analytic approach grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics, particularly Appraisal theory specifically utilizing the Appraisal Theory framework developed by Martin and White.
The choice of a qualitative design was driven by the research objective: to explore the complex nature of meaning-making within the legal system.
Unlike quantitative research that seeks to generalize results through statistical correlations, this study aimed to provide a Authick descriptionAy of how language functions as a tool of evaluation and power within a specific institutional context.
The descriptive nature of this design allowed the researcher to meticulously depict the linguistic phenomena as they naturally occur within official documents, without manipulating variables.
By adopting SFL as the http://dx.
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Vol 11 No 1 | 27 analytical lens, language was treated not merely as a set of grammatical rules, but as a resource for making meaning .
ocial semiotic.
Specifically, the Appraisal framework provided the necessary tools to dissect the interpersonal metafunction of the text how investigators establish their stance, express feelings, and position themselves relative to the suspects and witnesses through the AuInvestigation ReportsAy or Berita Acara Pemeriksaan (BAP).
This approach is particularly suited for uncovering the subtle, often subconscious, evaluative patterns that may lead to the rejection of files (P.
by prosecutors.
The primary data for this research consisted of official legal documents known as Investigation Reports (BAP).
These documents represent a critical genre of institutional discourse where spoken interactions .
nterviews and interrogation.
are transformed into a permanent written record.
The data source was the Galang Subdistrict Police Station (Polsek Galan.
, located in North Sumatra.
Indonesia.
To ensure a comprehensive analysis of the investigative process, the study utilized eight distinct categories of Investigation Reports.
This research used eight kinds of Investigation Reports issued by Police Department .
n this case referred to investigato.
which language was evaluated based on Attitude and positioning patterns : .
BAPS (Witness Investigation Report.
, .
BAPT (Suspect Investigation Repor.
, .
BAPh (Detention Investigation Repor.
, .
BAPk (Arresting Investigation Repor.
, .
BAPTKP (Crime Scene Investigation Repor.
, .
BAPy (Confiscation Repor.
, .
BAPPH (Legal Advisor Repor.
, and .
BAPPO (Missing Person Repor.
(Amin, 2.
These documents represent formal written discourse derived from interviews and interrogations involving witnesses, victims, and suspects.
As institutional texts, they reflect how spoken interaction is transformed into written legal documentation, making them highly relevant for discourse analysis.
These Investigation Reports were the primary data used as the primary discourse made based on interviews and interrogations the witness, victim and suspect (Gretzel & Collier de Mendonya, 2.
these texts are highly relevant for discourse analysis because they are not neutral transcripts.
they are reconstructed narratives where the investigator's voice often overlays the original speaker's intent.
Purposive sampling was used as the method of data collecting (Poria et al.
, 2.
This non-probability sampling method was chosen to ensure that the selected documents possessed specific characteristics relevant to the research problem namely, reports that contained significant narrative elements and evaluative language, rather than purely administrative forms.
was conducted by collecting documents of BAP (Investigation Repor.
from the collection procedure involved obtaining formal permission from the Head of the Galang Sub-district Police.
Once access was granted, the physical files were accessed.
To adhere to ethical research standards and maintain confidentiality e(Nolen.
After data were collected and recorded in computer, they were analyzed by using SCP (Simple Concordance Progra.
By using this program, every Appraisal word was analayzed in phrases and clauses in syntagmatic and paradigmatic way(Lestari Kasih Grasella Nahampun et al.
, 2.
Then, the eight types of BAP were analyzed by using parameter of Appraisal category(Wang et al.
, 2.
All themes used as data were distributed and interpreted in order to see the status and type of semantic and grammatical categories of discourse based on Appraisal framework (Al-Busafi, 2.
The distribution of Appraisal resources across the eight types of reports was compared to identify dominant patterns.
The findings were interpreted to reveal how investigators linguistically construct stance, evaluation, and interpersonal positioning toward suspects, witnesses, and events.
This methodological combination of corpus tools and qualitative analysis ensured both systematic data handling and contextualized interpretation of evaluative language in legal investigative discourse.
The corpus was processed using the Simple Concordance Program (SCP).
To refine the data, a 'Stop List' was manually curated to exclude non-evaluative functional words .
, prepositions, conjunctions, and proper name.
The 'Appraisal Lexicon' was then developed by identifying lexical items that carry evaluative weight (Affect.
Judgment.
Appreciatio.
as defined by Martin & White .
To ensure the validity of the manual classification and minimize researcher bias, this study employed inter-rater reliability.
Two independent linguists cross-checked the classification of the appraisal lexicon.
Any discrepancies were discussed until a consensus was reached, ensuring that the categorization of Attitude and Positioning remained objective and This research strictly adheres to legal research ethics.
Access to the Investigation Reports (BAP) was officially granted by the Galang Sub-district Police Station.
To ensure the protection of all parties involved, a rigorous de-identification process was applied.
all personal names, specific addresses, and identifying http://dx.
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Furthermore, the analysis was conducted solely for linguistic purposes without interfering with any legal processes or outcomes.
Results and Discussion Results The corpus-based analysis using the Simple Concordance Program (SCP) reveals distinct evaluative patterns across the eight categories of Investigation Reports (BAP).
Rather than being neutral administrative records, these documents exhibit a high density of appraisal items that reflect the investigator's framing of suspects and witnesses.
Witness Investigation Report SCP analysis found 415 types of total vocabulary for the profile of witness investigation report.
through the word count project found 1498 tokens.
Thus, it is around 0,27703605 types/tokens out of 10,722404508 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 74,001%.
Table 1.
1 Witness Investigation Report Word Frequency Number of Words (Type.
Cumulative Vocabulary Cumulative Word Count (Token.
Vocabulary Percentage (%) Word Count
Percentage (%) 50,36145 66,98795 75,90361 79,51807 83,37349 84,81928 88,19277 90,12048 92,04819 92,53012 93,25301 94,21687 95,18072 95,66265 96,38554 96,86747 97,10843 97,34940 97,59036 97,83133 98,31325 98,79518 99,03614 99,27711 99,51807 99,75904 100,00 13,95194 23,16422 30,57410
34,57944
39,91989
42,32310
48,86515
53,13752
57,94393
59,27904
61,48198
64,68625
68,42457
70,42724
73,63151
75,90120
77,16956
78,57143
80,04005
81,57543
84,77971
88,11749
89,91989
91,98932
94,19226
96,66222
100,00
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Vol 11 No 1 | 29 Suspect Investigation Report SCP analysis found 463 types of total vocabulary for the profile of suspect investigation report.
through the word count project found 1805 tokens.
Thus, it is arround 0,2565098 types/tokens out of 10,8978892 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 97,99%.
Table 1.
2 Suspect Investigation Report Word Number of Cumulative Frequency Words Vocabulary (Type.
Cumulative Word Count (Token.
Vocabulary Percentage (%) Word Count
Percentage (%) 51,1879 69,33045 77,75378 81,64147 85,09719 87,90497 89,41685 89,84881 90,92873 92,22462 93,30454 93,52052 93,95248 94,38445 94,81641 95,24838 95,46436 95,68035 95,89633 96,54428 96,97624 97,19222 97,40821 97,62419 98,05616 98,48812 98,70410 98,92009 99,13607 99,35205
99,56803
99,78402
100,00
13,13019
22,43767
28,91967
32,90859
37,34072
41,66205
44,37673
45,26316
47,75623
51,08033
54,12742
54,79224
56,23269
57,78393
59,44598
61,21884
62,16066
63,15789
64,21053
67,53463
69,86150
71,13573
72,46537
73,85042
76,84211
80,27701
82,32687
84,43213
86,59280
88,80886
92,35457
96,01108
100,00
Detention Iinvestigation Report SCP analysis found 151 types of total vocabulary for the profile of detention investigation report.
through the word count project found 228 tokens.
Thus, it is arround 0,6622808 types/tokens out of 10,0002193 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 55,01% (Isnaini.
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Vol 11 No 1 | 30 Tabel 1.
3 Detention Iinvestigation Report Word Number of Cumulative Frequency Words Vocabulary (Type.
Cumulative Word Count (Token.
Vocabulary Percentage (%) Word Count Percentage (%) 70,19868 46,49123 90,06623 72,80702 94,70199 82,01754 97,35099 89,03509 98,01325 91,22807 99,33775 96,49123 100,00 100,00 Arresting Investigation Report SCP analysis found 166 types of total vocabulary for the profile of arresting investigation report.
through the word count project found 262 tokens.
Thus, it is arround 0,63358779 types/tokens out of 10,25551425 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 55,64%.
Table 1.
4 Arresting Investigation Report Word Number of Cumulative Frequency Words Vocabulary (Type.
Cumulative Word Count (Token.
Vocabulary Percentage (%) Word Count Percentage (%) 68,6747 88,55422 93,9759 95,78313 96,38554 99,39759 100,00 43,51145 68,70229 79,00763 83,58779 85,49618 96,94656 100,00 Crime Scene Investigation Report SCP analysis found 148 types of total vocabulary for the profile of crime scene investigation report.
the word count project found 237 tokens.
Thus, it is arround 0,62447258 types/tokens out of 9,61363308 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 55,19%.
Table 1.
5 Crime Scene Investigation Report Word Number of Cumulative Frequency Words Vocabulary (Type.
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Vocabulary Percentage (%) Word Count Percentage (%) 66,89 85,14 91,22 97,97 99,32 100,00 41,77 64,56 75,95 92,83 97,05 100,00 Curricula: Journal of Teaching and Learning.
Vol 11 No 1 | 31 Confiscation Investigation report SCP analysis found 169 types of total vocabulary for the profile of confiscation investigation report.
the word count project found 298 tokens.
Thus, it is arround 0,56711409 types/tokens out of 9,78990714 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 63,73%.
Table 1.
6 Confiscation Investigation report Word Number of Cumulative Frequency Words Vocabulary (Type.
Cumulative Word Count (Token.
Vocabulary Percentage (%) Word Count Percentage (%) Legal Advisor Investigation Report SCP analysis found 135 types of total vocabulary for the profile of legal advisor investigation report.
the word count project found 200 tokens.
Thus, it is arround 0,675 types/tokens out of 9,54594155 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 54%.
7 Legal Advisor Investigation Report Word Number of Cumulative Frequency Words Vocabulary (Type.
Cumulative Word Count (Token.
Vocabulary Percentage (%) Word Count Percentage (%) Missing Person Investigation Report SCP analysis found 144 types of total vocabulary for the profile of missing person investigation report.
through the word count project found 222 tokens.
Thus, it is arround 0,64864865 types/tokens out of 9,6646472 types/sqrt.
Therefore, the word frequency based on YuleAos token type is 52,75%.
8 Missing Person Investigation Report Word Number of Cumulative Frequency Words Vocabulary (Type.
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Vol 11 No 1 | 32 Discussion The analysis of data in this study focused on two subsystems namely attitude and positioning.
While the analysis of evaluative language of appraisal was done by using SCP.
Tabel 2.
1 Findings of Attitude and Positioning Appraisal No.
Investigation Report Text Appraisal (%) Witness Suspect Detention Arresting Crime Scene Confiscation Legal Advisor Missing Person Attitude (%) Positioning (%) Statistical data indicates that negative Attitude,specifically within the sub-categories of Affect and Judgment,dominates the Suspect Investigation Reports (BAPS), accounting for 35.
7% of the identified appraisal tokens.
This suggests that the narrative constructed in these reports is heavily focused on culpability and emotional distress.
To illustrate this, consider the following anonymized excerpt:
"Tersangka mengakui bahwa ia terpaksa melakukan tindakan tersebut karena tekanan ekonomi.
(The suspect admitted that he was forced to commit the act due to economic pressur.
In this instance, the lexical choice "mengakui" .
functions as a positioning tool that frames the statement as a definitive confession rather than a mere statement.
Meanwhile, "terpaksa" .
evokes a negative Affectof insecurity.
By embedding these evaluative terms, the report moves beyond a verbatim transcript and begins to construct a specific legal "character" for the suspect.
The high frequency of these evaluative profiles suggests that the linguistic "neutrality" often expected in legal documents is, in practice, frequently compromised.
This finding aligns with ShuyAos .
observation on language crimes, where the subtle manipulation of reported speech can lead to significant shifts in legal While this study focuses on linguistic patterns, the prevalence of evaluative framing raises concerns regarding "interpretative bias.
" When a report is saturated with negative appraisal, it creates a "prepackaged" narrative for prosecutors and judges.
Although this study does not empirically track judicial outcomes, the presence of such robust evaluative profiles suggests that the documents may inadvertently guide the reader toward a specific interpretation of guilt or character.
The table also shows that the appraisal is used dominantly in suspect investigation report with 97,99%.
Witness report is on the second place with 74,001%.
In the third place is confiscation report with 63,73% (Jeffres et al.
, 2.
While the less dominant appraisal is on missing person investigation report with 52,75% (Syafryadin et al.
, 2.
This result shows that the writer of investigation report used many evaluative lexical language in conveying the message.
Therefore, the writer of the report has the high subjectivity toward the message that conveying through the investigation report text as the result of investigasion (Sutrisno, 2.
Conclusions This conclusion is based on the analysis toward the 8 kind of investigation as mention before.
Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the tendency of the usage pattern of appraisal lexis of negative attitude is showed in the dominant level of 35,7% by the investigator.
The tendency of the usage pattern of appraisal http://dx.
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Vol 11 No 1 | 33 lexis of negative positioning by the investigator is done by telling about the negative case or the abasement the case dominantly with 24,2% in the confiscation investigation result.
While the appraisal in suspect investigation report is 97,99%.
The Analysis of data in this study focused on two subsystems, namely Attitude and Positioning.
From the analysis and discussion, it was found that .
the tendency of usage patterns of Appraisal lexis of negative Attitude was shown in Affective elements, elements of assessment, and negative elements of Appreciation by the investigator.
a declining usage patterns Appraisal lexis of negative Positioning by investigators by means of the story about negative events or denial to the news informed to the examinee.
This conclusion is based on an assessment of the interrogation of witnesses, interrogation of suspects, the investigation report of detention, interrogation arrest, interrogation Points Genesis Case, the investigation report of seizure, interrogation mentoring legal counsel, and the people searching reports.
Based on the findings and the purpose of this study, an interpretation of the statutory language and the linguistic study on the process of preparing the reports can be well made as accurate as possible.
Each element in the language is not only meaningful, but also truthful, either positive or negative.
These findings are also expected to contribute to the development of linguistic theory in general and particularly in the evaluative study of the language.
It is expected to show the physical and material truth in an investigation in order to avoid the errors of interpretation and transcription of such reports.
This study examines Appraisal in the text of the dossier by the investigator.
From the results of the study, it is necessary to suggest some further researches.
First, it is suggested that the researchers continue using the written language data from other data sources.
In addition, the spoken language data is also assumed Appraisal research which is assumed as a research that is rich in novelty findings.
Second, it is suggested that research Appraisal be further developed by using a larger linguistic corpus so that it can obtain a better picture about the use of evaluative language in various texts.
The findings suggest that the use of evaluative language in Investigation Reports tends to reflect the investigatorAos stance, which may influence the representation of events.
This study concludes that the dominance of negative attitude and positioning in BAPs reflects a nonneutral linguistic framing by investigators.
The statistical evidence from the corpus suggests that these documents are evaluatively charged.
This is critical because such linguistic patterns can potentially lead to 'errors of interpretation' during the judicial phase.
If a report is heavily framed with negative appraisal, it may inadvertently influence the prosecutor's or judge's perception of the Thus, greater linguistic objectivity in drafting BAPs is essential to uphold the integrity of legal Therefore, greater attention to linguistic neutrality is recommended to improve the clarity and objectivity of legal documentation.
References