EARWITNESS SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION

The scientific basis of speaker identification by human listeners and its generalization to the procedures and practices of the police and t o the decision making of the courts have been both neglected and misun derstood relative to that of face and photo identification. An overvie w of the perception of speech is presented, followed by a review of fo rensically relevant variables in voice identification (i.e., speaker, listener, situational, and procedural variables). Finally, suggestions for the proper procedures and conduction of voice lineups are propose d.