Forensic transcription – videos and readings
Ten minute video
Article in Victoria Law Institute Journal
- McMahon, M., & Fraser, H. 2023. Transcription of indistinct forensic audio: Time for reform. Law Institute of Victoria Journal, (August), 20–23.
Legal history of forensic transcription (Menzies, Butera, Eastman) from a linguistic science perspective
- Fraser, H. 2021. The development of legal procedures for using a transcript to assist the jury in understanding indistinct covert recordings used as evidence in Australian criminal trials: A history in three key cases. Language and Law / Linguagem e Direito, 8(1), 59-75.
‘Adelaide bank account’
- Fraser, H. (2018) ‘Assisting’ listeners to hear words that aren’t there: Dangers in using police transcripts of indistinct covert recordings, Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 50:2, 129-139.
Other cases mentioned in video (see also longer video below)
The ‘shot the prick’ case
- Fraser, H., & Kinoshita, Y. 2021. Injustice arising from the unnoticed power of priming: How lawyers and even judges can be misled by unreliable transcripts of indistinct forensic audio. Criminal Law Journal, 45(3), 142-152.
The ‘pact’ case
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Fraser, H. (2018). Forensic transcription: How confident false beliefs about language and speech threaten the right to a fair trial in Australia. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 38(4), 586-606.
General background
Very quick introductions
- Burridge, K. 2017. The dark side of mondegreens: How a simple mishearing can lead to wrongful conviction. The Conversation.
- Fraser, H. 2013. Covert recordings as evidence in court: The return of police ‘verballing’? The Conversation.
- Fraser, H. 2019. Don’t believe your ears: “enhancing” forensic audio can mislead juries in criminal trials. The Conversation.
- Fraser, H. 2020. Introducing the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence. Judicial Officers’ Bulletin, 32(11), 117-118.
More detailed treatments of transcription and enhancing
- French, P., & Fraser, H. 2018. Why “ad hoc experts” should not provide transcripts of indistinct forensic audio, and a proposal for a better approach. Criminal Law Journal, 42, 298-302.
- Fraser, H. 2020. Enhancing forensic audio: What works, what doesn’t, and why. Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity, 8(1), 85-102.
- Fraser, H., & Loakes, D. 2020. Acoustic injustice: The experience of listening to indistinct covert recordings presented as evidence in court . Law Text Culture, 24, 405-429.