Forensic Speaker Identification of Drug- Affected Speech: An Acoustic Study

Authors

• Hiba Jebur Hamzah, Department of English, College of Education for Human Sciences, University of Basrah, Basrah, IraqFollow
• Balqis I.G Rashid, Department of English, College of Education for Human Sciences, University of Basrah, Basrah, IraqFollow

Abstract

In a forensic context, identifying an individual from a voice recording, whether he/she is under the influence of drugs, can help narrow down the suspect pool. It is apparent that there are limited scientific studies on the influence of illegal drugs on speech, probably due to ethical issues and their sensitivity. Drugs are divided into four categories: depressants, which affect the brain efficiency (as in alcohol); stimulants, which increase confusion and speech fluency (for example cocaine, methamphetamines); hallucinogens, which distort the perception of reality (e.g., LSD); and opiates, which represent a common medical treatment but if it is used overdosage turns into a harmful drug commonly used as painkillers but are also capable of inducing euphoria (e.g., heroin). Each category of these substances influences the mental capacity as well as the appropriateness of articulation and speech production.

Keywords

Drug-affected speech, Long-term distribution, Jitter, Shimmer, HNR, Speaking rate

Article Type

Article

First Page

235

Last Page

248

Publication Date

9-15-2026

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Hamzah, Hiba Jebur and Rashid, Balqis I.G (2026) "Forensic Speaker Identification of Drug- Affected Speech: An Acoustic Study," Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences: Vol. 65: Iss. 3, Article 15.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36473/2518-9263.2492