A statistical procedure to adjust for time-interval mismatch in forensic voice comparison

Abstract

The present paper describes a statistical modeling procedure that was developed to account for the fact that, in a forensic voice comparison analysis conducted for a particular case, there was a long time interval between when the questioned- and known-speaker recordings were made (six years), but in the sample of the relevant population used for training and testing the forensic voice comparison system there was a short interval (hours to days) between when each of multiple recordings of each speaker was made. The present paper also includes results of empirical validation of the procedure. Although based on a particular case, the procedure has potential for wider application given that relatively long time intervals between the recording of questioned and known speakers are not uncommon in casework.