Forensic voice comparison and forensic acoustics.

Abstract

In February 2009, the National Research Council Report to Congress on Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States found that “some forensic disciplines are supported by little rigorous systematic research to validate the discipline’s basic premises and techniques. There is no evident reason why such research cannot be conducted” (p. 22), and that “The development of scientific research, training, technology, and databases associated with DNA analysis have resulted from substantial and steady federal support… Similar support must be given to all credible forensic science disciplines if they are to achieve the degrees of reliability needed to serve the goals of justice” (p. 13). Over the last decade, a small number of researchers have been working on developing demonstrably valid and reliable forensic voice comparison with evidence evaluated using the same framework as is applied to the forensic evaluation of DNA. This tutorial will present an introduction to the forensic evaluation of acoustic evidence using this framework. Both acoustic-phonetic and signal-processing approaches to forensic voice comparison will be described. The focus will be on evidence in the form of voice recordings, but the framework can also be applied to other forms of evidence, including audio recordings of other types of acoustic events, and the tutorial should therefore be of value to anyone interested in forensic acoustics in general.