Forensic linguistics is a subfield of applied linguistics that deals with the analysis of spoken (speaker identification) and written texts (author identification) that are the subject of police investigations or legal proceedings. Additionally, it addresses speech crimes (e.g., defamation), allegations of plagiarism, and questions of trademark law. The analysis of anonymous texts, which has a long tradition in the humanities, has been recognized since the 1950s for its potential as a forensic auxiliary science; in the Federal Republic of Germany, forensic text analysis first gained public attention in connection with the confession letters of the RAF and the Oetker kidnapping. This introduction elucidates the subject matter, which has mainly been published in essay form until now, and provides a structured overview.