TY - JOUR
T1 - A case study of interpreter-mediated witness statement
T2 - police interpreting in South Korea
AU - Lee, Jieun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2017/3/4
Y1 - 2017/3/4
N2 - Interpreters play an important role in police interviewing witnesses from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In the cases where interpreters lack professional attributes such as interpreting competence and impartiality, it is very likely that the interpreted evidence and statement will not be a faithful reproduction of original utterances. If attention is not paid to possible alterations by interpreters to the original utterances of the witness and duty of care is lacking in the procedure of obtaining statement from witnesses through such interpreters, the official legal record may not be an accurate one. Drawing on the data of a video-recorded interpreter-mediated police interview in South Korea, this paper examines issues arising from the lack of understanding of the role of interpreters, which may have implications for criminal proceedings. The findings indicate that in addition to interpreter training, more efficient police training in the adoption of best practice guidelines in interviewing through interpreters is required.
AB - Interpreters play an important role in police interviewing witnesses from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In the cases where interpreters lack professional attributes such as interpreting competence and impartiality, it is very likely that the interpreted evidence and statement will not be a faithful reproduction of original utterances. If attention is not paid to possible alterations by interpreters to the original utterances of the witness and duty of care is lacking in the procedure of obtaining statement from witnesses through such interpreters, the official legal record may not be an accurate one. Drawing on the data of a video-recorded interpreter-mediated police interview in South Korea, this paper examines issues arising from the lack of understanding of the role of interpreters, which may have implications for criminal proceedings. The findings indicate that in addition to interpreter training, more efficient police training in the adoption of best practice guidelines in interviewing through interpreters is required.
KW - Police interpreting
KW - impartiality
KW - interpreter-mediated witness statement
KW - interpreting competence
KW - training
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032102135&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15614263.2016.1248840
DO - 10.1080/15614263.2016.1248840
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032102135
SN - 1561-4263
VL - 18
SP - 194
EP - 205
JO - Police Practice and Research
JF - Police Practice and Research
IS - 2
ER -