Word-for-Word Transcription of Conversations as a Task of Forensic Audio Analysis

Abstract

The article aims to develop a unified methodical approach to determining the word-for-word contents of conversations on phonograms when conducting analysis of audio recordings in forensic institutions of the Russian Ministry of Justice.The author summarizes the existing experience; addresses the institutional, legal, and theoretical aspects of the expert task in question and its legal significance. He also describes its type, object, subject, stages, and the range of the applied methods.Based on the author’s classification of phonograms and practical examples, the author analyzes the approaches enabling experts to solve not only typical but also particular tasks. The article also clarifies the competence of forensic experts working in the system of the Russian Ministry of Justice, who can determine the word-for-word contents of recorded conversations in the course of forensic audio and video analysis.

Keywords

• audio forensics
• word-for-word transcription of recorded conversations
• intelligibility of speech
• attribution of utterances
• diagnostic expert task
• classification expert task