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Intercepting with Interpreters - Intercepter avec des interprètes
Titre du projet
Intercepting with Interpreters - Intercepter avec des interprètes
Description
Intercepting wire, oral, or electronic communication is an important element of criminal investigations. The goal is to transform communication intercepts into evidence of probable cause. This measure of secret surveillance is technically and legally possible, but expensive, and of course, only of use if the content of the conversations can be understood, that is, made available by interpreters.
Hence, criminal justice is completely dependent on good performances of interpreters. Interpreters lay the very foundation for subsequent interrogations and decisions by the Public Prosecutor to take further coercive measures or not.
According to the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code, jurisprudence and legal doctrine have so far neglected the significant and powerful role of these interpreters, whose activities are very different from those of courtroom or police interrogation interpreters. Scientific research has also mostly focused on courtroom interpreting, presumably because its context makes it more accessible.
However, interpreters involved in interception face specific challenges and must have different qualities than courtroom interpreters, including special linguistic skills such as dialect knowledge, voice recognition skills, criminal investigation flair, even insider knowledge. Interpreters listen, select extracts, interpret, and transcribe. They are important contributors to the inevitable “entextualization” process—that is, the ways in which parts of intercepted conversations are categorized as incriminating and thus converted into criminal evidence.
The „Intercepting with interpreters“ project is designed to investigate legal, sociolegal, sociolinguistic, and ethnomethodological questions under the direction of Prof. Dr. Nadja Capus, (socio)legal researcher at the Law Faculty of the University of Neuchâtel.
Hence, criminal justice is completely dependent on good performances of interpreters. Interpreters lay the very foundation for subsequent interrogations and decisions by the Public Prosecutor to take further coercive measures or not.
According to the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code, jurisprudence and legal doctrine have so far neglected the significant and powerful role of these interpreters, whose activities are very different from those of courtroom or police interrogation interpreters. Scientific research has also mostly focused on courtroom interpreting, presumably because its context makes it more accessible.
However, interpreters involved in interception face specific challenges and must have different qualities than courtroom interpreters, including special linguistic skills such as dialect knowledge, voice recognition skills, criminal investigation flair, even insider knowledge. Interpreters listen, select extracts, interpret, and transcribe. They are important contributors to the inevitable “entextualization” process—that is, the ways in which parts of intercepted conversations are categorized as incriminating and thus converted into criminal evidence.
The „Intercepting with interpreters“ project is designed to investigate legal, sociolegal, sociolinguistic, and ethnomethodological questions under the direction of Prof. Dr. Nadja Capus, (socio)legal researcher at the Law Faculty of the University of Neuchâtel.
Chercheur principal
Statut
Completed
Date de début
01 Décembre 2019
Date de fin
31 Août 2023
Organisations
Fonds National Suisse
6 Résultats
Voici les éléments 1 - 6 sur 6
- PublicationAccès libreRedefining Interpreters’ and Translators’ Roles(2024-05-28)
; 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. - PublicationRestriction temporaireIntercepter avec des interprètes : le résultat du travail des interprètes d'interceptions de communications en tant que preuve dans la procédure pénale suisseCette recherche s’intéresse au travail des interprètes qui interviennent lorsque des interceptions de communications sont ordonnées dans le cadre d’une enquête pénale. L’efficacité de ces interceptions est en effet limitée dans les cas où les conversations se sont déroulées en langues étrangères. Sans les interprètes, les acteurs de la procédure pénale se retrouveraient ainsi souvent démunis face à des conversations qu’ils ne comprennent pas. La première partie de ce travail offre une introduction générale en présentant les mesures de surveillance des communications et en analysant la façon dont le rôle et le travail de ces interprètes est traité dans le système juridique suisse. La deuxième partie aborde la question de la qualification juridique du résultat du travail de ces interprètes. Elle identifie ainsi les conditions nécessaires pour qu’un élément récolté lors d’une enquête puisse être qualifié de preuve dans une procédure pénale suisse. La troisième et dernière partie est consacrée à une analyse empirique de dossiers pénaux contenant des interceptions de communications en langues étrangères. Elle a pour but de vérifier si la pratique est conforme à ce qui a été discuté dans la deuxième partie de cette étude. L’objectif consiste ainsi à déterminer si le résultat du travail des interprètes d’interceptions de communications peut être qualifié de preuve dans une procédure pénale.
- PublicationAccès libreInterpreting Intercepted Communication: A Sui Generis Translational Activity(2021)
; Legal wiretapping has gained importance in law enforcement along with the development of information and communication technology. Understanding the language of intercepted persons is essential for the success of a police investigation. Hence, intercept interpreters, as we suggest calling them in this article, are hired. Little is known about this specific work at the interface between language and law. With this article, we desire to contribute to closing this gap by focussing particularly on the translational activity. Our study identifies a fragmented field of research due to the difficulty in accessing workers in this specific field who interpret in a highly confidential phase of criminal investigations. The findings, which are drawn from scarce studies and our empirical data derived from an online questionnaire for a pilot study in Switzerland, demonstrate the wide range of the performed activity intercept interpreting. This article is the first to present translational activity from the perspective of intercept interpreters. The activity differs in many ways from interpretation in court hearings or police interviews. Hence, we suggest categorising interlingual intercept interpretation as a translational activity sui generis and—since previous research has not done justice to the ethical and deontological questions that intercept interpretation raises—advocate for further transdisciplinary research in this field of translation. - PublicationAccès libreIntercepter avec des médiateurs linguistiques: une pratique en quête de normes(2021-7)Techniquement réalisable et licite, la surveillance des communications en temps réel permet de prévenir ou d’élucider des infractions. Or elle peut néanmoins échouer lorsque le contenu n’est pas compris. Les autorités de poursuite pénale sont fortement tributaires des interprètes. Pourtant, leur rôle est un champ d’étude peu exploré. Un projet de recherche de l’Université de Neuchâtel est consacré à cette problématique.
- PublicationRestriction temporaire