Forensic phonetics
Forensic phonetics is the use of expertise in phonetics in legal and law enforcement contexts, and the extension of research on phonetics to investigations relevant to legal cases.
The importance of expertise
Most people know a great deal about speech, in the sense that they can use and interpret speech with extraordinary skill and subtlety. On the other hand, people's knowledge about speech, in the sense of ability to describe and analyse the properties of sounds and voices, is usually very limited - even if they are knowledgeable about the history of English, or are fluent in another language.
Phonetics is a science, just like engineering, psychology or dentistry, and providing evidence about speech for legal cases requires the expertise of someone qualified in the science of phonetics. The following article outlines some of the pitfalls of failing to recognise this simple idea.
- Rodman, Robert. 2002. Linguistics and the law: how knowledge of, or ignorance of, elementary linguistics may affect the dispensing of justice. International Journal of Speech Language and the Law 9:92-101.
Click here for guidance on how you can acquire appropriate expertise, either by hiring someone to work for you or by studying yourself.
Forensic transcription
My specialisation is in transcription: click here to read more about transcription, although I do sometimes advise on issues to do with speaker identification.
LADO
I have also recently become involved in research about the use of language analysis for determination of the origin of asylum seekers. Click here to read more about LADO.
Links
For more information on forensic phonetics in general, you may find the links and references on this page to be of use.