Preparing a voice lineup

Authors

  • Francis Nolan University of Cambridge
  • Esther Grabe University of Cambridge

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v3i1.74

Keywords:

Phonetics, forensics, earwitness identification, voice parade, voice lineup, voice similarity.

Abstract

This paper will describe the preparation and implementation of a voice lineup or voice parade which formed part of the police investigation into a rape. The police supplied, as a sample of a suspect's voice, the statutory recording of a police interview with the suspect, and also speech samples from eight of their panel of volunteers for identity parades to act as 'foils'. The task was to create a voice parade which would be fair to the suspect. Fragments free of incriminating content were edited from the suspect's sample to provide a 30 second composite sample of his speech, and a similar editing procedure was followed for the 'foils'. A further speaker, for whom an interview recording was available, was also added. To ensure the fairness of the samples, two experiments were carried out in accordance with recommendations formulated at the Forensic Laboratory of the Dutch Justice Ministry. The first provided an estimate of the relative perceived distance of each of the foils from the suspect. The two speakers least like the suspect were eliminated. The second ensured that neither the suspect nor any of the foils sounded stereotypically like a rapist. The problems inherent in such experiments will be discussed, as will the procedure and outcome of the voice parade.

Author Biographies

  • Francis Nolan, University of Cambridge
    FRANCIS NOLAN is a lecturer in Phonetics at the University of Cambridge. He has particular interests in speaker characterization, as reflected in the title of his 1983 book "The Phonetic Bases of Speaker Recognition", and he has acted in a number of court cases involving speaker identification. Other interests include phonetic reductions in connected speech, theories of speech production, and intonation.
  • Esther Grabe, University of Cambridge
    ESTHER GRABE has worked as a researcher in phonetics at the Universities of Leeds and Cambridge. Her main research has been in the area of intonational phonology and the use of prosody in speech comprehension. She is now carrying out research on intonational phrasing in English and German at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen.

Published

1996-06-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Nolan, F., & Grabe, E. (1996). Preparing a voice lineup. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 3(1), 74-94. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v3i1.74