Ghostwriters of crime narratives: Constructing the story by referring to intercept interpreters’ contributions in criminal case files

Capus, Nadja; Grisot, Cristina

doi:10.1177/17416590221133304

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…As a starting point, such FTT tasks obviously must be undertaken by people who are speakers of the same foreign language as in the audio, and in Australia and other Anglophone criminal jurisdictions, interpreters and translators are often engaged; similarly, in European countries such as Belgium "sworn translators-interpreters" are engaged to provide the service for legal wiretapping (Salaets et al, 2015), i.e. intercepted communication, while in Switzerland "intercept interpreters" are engaged (Capus and Griebel, 2021;Capus and Grisot, 2022;Capus and Havelka, 2022). American legal interpreting scholars González et al (2012) regard FTT as "one of the most demanding and rapidly growing areas of legal interpretation" (p. 965), and therefore devote an entire chapter to this topic in their seminal volume, Fundamentals of Court Interpretation: Theory, Policy, and Practice.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcribing and translating forensic speech evidence containing foreign languages—An Australian perspective

Lai

2023

Front. Commun.

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There is a growing body of literature on forensic transcription of covert recordings obtained by clandestine law enforcement operations. Due to the nature of these operations, the quality of the recordings, particularly those obtained by planting listening devices in a car or a house, is often extremely poor. When tendering such recordings as evidence in court for prosecuting an alleged crime, a transcript will often accompany the recording to assist the triers of fact (i.e., judges and jurors) to hear better. In the context of multilingual and multicultural Australia, often such forensic recordings may contain languages other than English, and therefore a translation into English is required to facilitate understanding of the verbal exchanges in the recording. Little is known, however, about the people engaged by law enforcement to undertake these forensic translation tasks, what qualification and training they possess, how they carry out the tasks, and if there is a system to safeguard the quality and reliability of their translation output. This paper reports on the first ever survey conducted in Australia on professional interpreters and translators who have been engaged to perform this type of work. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of text answers provide a qualitative account of the status quo which has not been documented before. Deficiencies of the current practice and its associated risks are identified. Recommendations are proposed as the first step to address the issues identified.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcribing and translating forensic speech evidence containing foreign languages—An Australian perspective

Lai

2023

Front. Commun.

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“…As a starting point, such FTT tasks obviously must be undertaken by people who are speakers of the same foreign language as in the audio, and in Australia and other Anglophone criminal jurisdictions, interpreters and translators are often engaged; similarly, in European countries such as Belgium "sworn translators-interpreters" are engaged to provide the service for legal wiretapping (Salaets et al, 2015), i.e. intercepted communication, while in Switzerland "intercept interpreters" are engaged Capus and Grisot, 2022;Capus and Havelka, 2022). American legal interpreting scholars González et al (2012) regard FTT as "one of the most demanding and rapidly growing areas of legal interpretation" (p. 965), and therefore devote an entire chapter to this topic in their seminal volume, Fundamentals of Court Interpretation: Theory, Policy, and Practice.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capturing Talk: The Institutional Practices Surrounding the Transcription of Spoken Language

2024

Frontiers Research Topics

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Frontiers is more than just an open access publisher of scholarly articles: it is a pioneering approach to the world of academia, radically improving the way scholarly research is managed. The grand vision of Frontiers is a world where all people have an equal opportunity to seek, share and generate knowledge. Frontiers provides immediate and permanent online open access to all its publications, but this alone is not enough to realize our grand goals. Frontiers journal seriesThe Frontiers journal series is a multi-tier and interdisciplinary set of openaccess, online journals, promising a paradigm shift from the current review, selection and dissemination processes in academic publishing. All Frontiers journals are driven by researchers for researchers; therefore, they constitute a service to the scholarly community. At the same time, the Frontiers journal series operates on a revolutionary invention, the tiered publishing system, initially addressing specific communities of scholars, and gradually climbing up to broader public understanding, thus serving the interests of the lay society, too. Dedication to qualityEach Frontiers article is a landmark of the highest quality, thanks to genuinely collaborative interactions between authors and review editors, who include some of the world's best academicians. Research must be certified by peers before entering a stream of knowledge that may eventually reach the public -and shape society; therefore, Frontiers only applies the most rigorous and unbiased reviews. Frontiers revolutionizes research publishing by freely delivering the most outstanding research, evaluated with no bias from both the academic and social point of view. By applying the most advanced information technologies, Frontiers is catapulting scholarly publishing into a new generation. What are Frontiers Research Topics?Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers journals series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area.

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“…This study aims to contribute to this research gap by examining how IITs intervene in the selection of information and in the interpreting and explanation of intercepted and translated conversations based on 538 TIRs. These TIRs are of paramount importance, particularly in jurisdictions with criminal proceedings based on case files (CAPUS and GRISOT, 2022). Even though audio tapes of the monitored conversations are part of the case files and therefore are at least theoretically accessible to prosecutors, parties and courts, in practice the content is inaccessible as it is not comprehensible without the assistance of yet another interpreter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redefining Interpreters’ and Translators’ Roles

Hohl Zuercher,

Capus

2024

REI

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In multilingual societies, translation and interpreting play pivotal roles in facilitating access to essential services provided by public institutions for individuals speaking languages other than the official language. However, prevailing assumptions among professionals in these institutions often regard translation as a mechanical process, overlooking the inherent interpretive nature of interlingual transfer. This study examines the interventions of intercept interpreters/translators (IITs) in the translation process within the criminal justice system, focusing on covert communication surveillance. An analysis of 538 translated intercept records (TIRs) reveals that IITs significantly intervene in selecting and interpreting content, often decrypting vague or encoded terms used in intercepted conversations. These interventions, which include annotations and comments, shape the evidentiary value and comprehensibility of TIRs. The findings highlight the complex nature of communication surveillance and underscore the need to reconsider the roles of translators and interpreters. This study contributes to our overall understanding about the ambiguous roles interpreters and translators may play in public institutions. As for IITs, the study suggests a re-evaluation of their roles that recognizes their specialized skills and multiple tasks.

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Ghostwriters of crime narratives: Constructing the story by referring to intercept interpreters’ contributions in criminal case files

Cited by 5 publications

References 57 publications

Transcribing and translating forensic speech evidence containing foreign languages—An Australian perspective

Transcribing and translating forensic speech evidence containing foreign languages—An Australian perspective

Capturing Talk: The Institutional Practices Surrounding the Transcription of Spoken Language

Redefining Interpreters’ and Translators’ Roles

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