Saturday, July 23, 2016

Interview Transcription Value for Analyst

Available from Amazon.com 
At Hyatt Analysis Services, there is never a shortage for the need for transcription, even with some trusted volunteers. 

It must be precise, and a single hour audio translates into several hours of typing, alone, but the checking for accuracy, including the sometimes troublesome auto-correct programs can harm accuracy. 

Yet it is that I wish to share something of a somewhat personal nature with readers regarding this.  

When I worked in child protective services, the case load and pace were unsustainable.  If a single allegation of, for example, sexual abuse was made, on average it meant that:

The child must be interviewed; perhaps even without prior notification to the parent, should this increase the risk to the child. Interview 1.  

The school had to be notified, and the professionals who were in contact with the child had to be interviewed.  Teacher, assistant, guidance counselor...  3 interviews on average. 

Then, the child's doctor, nurse, therapist... 3

Then the child's siblings (on average, 2)      2 

The child's parents (generally, this is 2 to 4, as step parenting and unmarried partners)   4

Grandparents      4

Any adults living in the house (this could range from 0 (not likely) to usually several, including both relations and non relations.  To err on the low side, I will choose 2. 

Any other children in the household, which was common, but again, the low side:  2. 

Lastly, the accused and the host parent's therapists, drug counselors, etc, had to be interviewed.  Low side:  2.  

In just this case, 24 interviews needed to be conducted and transcribed.  The doctor interview would be very short, generally less than 10 minutes, while the alleged perpetrator and the hosting parent of the per, would be the longest, generally 90 minutes to the hosting parent, and often 2-3 hours of the alleged perpetrator. 

All of this does not include record review including medical, psychiatric and psychological reports. 

Many of these interviews were conducted (of the parents) with a psych eval in hand, and at my desk while I typed. 

This, alone, proved in valuable, years later, as a 'data base' of sorts emerged for me.  I learned, for example, the language of:

a.  Sex Abuse Victims, from both the interviews, and the subsequent massive research

b.  Borderlines, where the interviews were often chaotic, scattered, unfocused and volatile;

c.  bi polar

d.  oppositional 

e.  narcissistic 

These were the basic and dominant personality types, traits, or diagnosis found within the interview and it was in the lengthy hours, 2 to 3 times per week, of transcription, that forced me to learn by the volume alone.  

Although it is long work, and often considered boring, trained analysts, even when strained for time, can learn a great deal when transcribing an audio or video, as they are permitted to see reactions, personality traits emerge and even correct the interviewer's strategy as he or she types 'along' going in chronological order. 

It is invaluable work and the moniker of 'boring' lifts as the analyst 'sees' into the language and the brain halts, presses and remains at a deliberate pace, by necessity, due to typing, correcting and the incessant pause that takes place. 

For the trained analyst, transcription services are great short cuts, but accuracy is not the only doubt in play:

The missed value of the experience of entering into the interview, via slow, methodical typing, is of great value.

If you are like me, the value is something you may not realize until later, as you grow stronger in "the expected."

For training opportunities, including a full and challenging course in Statement Analysis, go to Hyatt Analysis Service's new website at www.hyattanalysis.com

More on the new site coming, along with updated analysis and the conclusion to:

Amanda Blackburn murder;
Disappearance of Deorr shortly. 

15 comments:

PattyCake said...

YAY! I'm LOOKING FOWARD TO READING THE CONCLUSION ON Amanda bLACKBURNS CASE
... Davey U STINK

Sarah said...

Peter, Im very interested in hearing your thoughts on DeOrr's disappearance as the case is very befuddling. Thank you for all you do to help the innocent victims of these crimes.

Carnival Barker said...


Although it is long work, and often considered boring, trained analysts, even when strained for time, can learn a great deal when transcribing an audio or video, as they are permitted to see reactions, personality traits emerge and even correct the interviewer's strategy as he or she types 'along' going in chronological order.

* * * * * * * * *

I have been a court reporter (stenographer) for almost 20 years, and what turned out to be the most fascinating and unexpected part of my job is what Peter describes above ... how well I'm able to understand human nature just by listening to EVERY.SINGLE.WORD. that someone says. I discovered Peter's amazing work about 15 years into my career, and in that time I've noticed such a difference in how I process and interpret the words and phrases I hear from witnesses every day. At the end of a proceeding the attorneys will sometimes ask me my impression of a witness, and I've become much more insightful when I express how I felt about someone's testimony and the specific reasons why ... thanks to this blog.

Anonymous said...

OT- On August 12 I am hosting a candlelight vigil to honor my missing friend, Tracy Pickett. The twelfth will mark 24 years since she disappeared from Joplin Mo. Last month her mom got a phone call from the joplin police department (the agency supposedly investigating her disappearence)asking if Tracy had come home yet... all these years, we (Tracy's family and friends) have thought the police were looking for Tracy or trying to solve the mystery or something! But apparently they've been doing nothing. It's so disappointing and disheartening... how could they forget her? She was only 14.
Anyways, Tracy is listed on NamUs, The Charlie Project, and the NCMEC. If you get a moment, will all of you please look up her poster/case? Maybe she's out there somewhere still. Thanks.

Hey Jude said...

Elf, there is a RSA in Oklahama (rape) by the name of the guy mentioned in Websleuths comments on Tracy's disappearance. He was forty one in 2000 when the case was active - there are photos of him. Have any of the kids who were at the party taken a look at the photos? It doesn't appear much has been done for Tracy - but if those kids were right in the name, and there is a guy of that unusual name who is a RSA in Oklahoma, to where he returned, it's difficult to imagine he has not been further checked out by LE since. Could be coincidence, he could have given the kids someone else's name, could be a different guy who shares the name - thought to mention it, anyway.

Hey Jude said...

Everyone who likes to transcribe and in case you do not know about this:

http://otranscribe.com

It looks great, especially good for those who only have one device available, I haven't tried it yet, but will be using it next time - I think it will be easier than switching between tablet and PC.



Hey Jude said...

That should be his rape case was active in 2000, when he was forty-one.

lynda said...

OT

I am hoping to get my hands on the full, written statement that James Dean Worley wrote in defense of himself to get out of prison early in regards to his previous kidnapping charge. For those of you that don't know, he was just arrested this week in the abduction/murder of my nephews fiancee. I have seen excerpts

Robin Gardner cried when she learned the news.

Though she now lives many miles from northwest Ohio, Friday’s arrest of a rural Delta man in the alleged abduction of 20-year-old Sierah Joughin of Metamora hit close to home.

In the summer of 1990, Ms. Gardner was a 26-year-old living in Whitehouse. On a hot and humid Independence Day she decided to ride her bike from her cul-de-sac neighborhood, down Obee Road to Oak Openings Preserve Metropark.
That bike ride would come to an abrupt end when James Worley forced her off the road and dragged her to his truck. He was found guilty of abduction in Lucas County Common Pleas Court and served about three years in prison for the crime.
The day of the attack, as she was struggling with the 6-foot-2 stranger on the side of the road, Ms. Gardner said, she thought of everything she hadn’t done: Unmarried. No kids. Her life had barely begun.
“I was so angry that I fought, and I almost passed out. I remember this feeling of like black curtains,” she said. “I just really wanted to live.”
He forced her into the truck and snapped handcuffs on one wrist, according to Ms. Gardner and court records.
She screamed. She fought. She tried to stall him.
When she saw a motorcyclist drive by she said she made sure to flail her body, hoping the biker would notice something odd happening inside Worley’s truck.
When he let go of her, she took her opportunity to slide across the seat and out the door. She ran straight to the motorcyclist, who had stopped farther up the road. She jumped on the bike, told him she needed help, and he took her home.
“I walked in and my poor mother, she was making potato salad for a neighborhood picnic. I walk in with this strange man, disheveled with handcuffs,” Ms. Gardner recalled.
Exhausted, she said she fell to the floor, hyperventilating. The police were called and an ambulance arrived. Ms. Gardner said she was loaded into the ambulance and driven back to the Obee Road scene.
_____________________________

Worley, it turned out, had remained at the side of the road. Later, he would claim that he had argued with Ms. Gardner about who was at fault in the collision.
In a long, typewritten, first-person memorandum he filed with the court in an attempt to get out of prison early, Worley maintained that the bicyclist had turned in front of his truck, which he used to run a lawn service, and that she immediately accused him of intentionally hitting her. Worley said that when Ms. Gardner tried to leave, he grabbed her arm and handcuffed her wrist.
“All I wanted was to attach her to something stationary so as to prevent her from leaving until the police or someone else arrived,” he wrote.
He would later argue that his decision to stay at the scene proved his innocence. In his court filing, he recounted how after the incident an ambulance arrived and an officer grabbed him by the neck and shoved him toward the emergency vehicle’s open hatch.
“I saw Robin Gardner surrounded by people, strapped to a backboard, crying hesterically (sic) out of control. The ambulance crew tipped the backboard toward the window so she could see me. Robin Gardner then started screaming ‘Yes, that’s him, that’s him,’” he wrote.
At some point, she said someone asked Worley about those handcuffs — shackles he later told the court he purchased five years before for $3 and hung from his rear-view mirror as an ornament.
But Ms. Gardner described a more chilling response.
“They said, ‘Well, Mr. Worley, why did you have handcuffs in your truck?’ and he winked and said, ‘Novelty purposes,’ ” she said.

Anonymous said...

Peter, send the interview recordings to India. They will transcribe them for you on the cheap and have the transcript to you the next day.

Anonymous said...

Re: Hey Jude July 24, 2016 at 8:38 AM
That is a great catch finding a man on the RSO list in Oklahoma with the same name as the guy mentioned in Websleuths comments on Tracy Pickett's disappearance. A man with the exact name on the RSO was born in 1968 and convicted of kidnapping, sodomy and first degree rape in Oklahoma in 1993. I did not find any other sexual offenses for him, but convictions for other offences. He would have been around 24 when Tracey disappeared (old enough to purchase the alcohol) in 1992 and about 48 now. I am wondering if he registered a new address with RSO when he was 41 years old and they took picture 2 and that is where that age came from? And maybe the Registration Start: 2000-12-18 date was when Oklahoma got him entered in their new RSO database? Not really sure on those two things or if this is even the right man or if he told the teens his real name. There is one other man with the same unusual name, but middle initial W in OK, he is in his 70's now and I did not find any sexual offenses for him.

Kat said...

Re: Hey Jude July 24, 2016 at 8:38 AM
I said - "And maybe the Registration Start: 2000-12-18 date was when Oklahoma got him entered in their new RSO database?"
He must have gotten out of prison around that date and got entered in the data base. There are no crimes for him between 1994 and 2000.

Hey Jude said...

Anon - I checked more carefully, and the 2000 date is when supervision began following his release from prison. He only got seven years and served a little over three - what a travesty. The photos are quite different on the RSO page and the Olkahoma Prison Inmate profile - however, the second photo on the RSO profile is, I believe, an elongated b/w version of the pic on the Prison Inmate profile. Pretty sure it is the same guy in both as there is not another of the same name in the prison profiles, plus physical description and crimes are similar. Well, excepting the one says 'White' and the othe 'American Indian' - he looks white, would assume RSO he wasn't asked, and for prison registration he was asked.

Well, let's hope they are checking him out - the kids at the party must have got the name from somewhere. It sounds one of those cases where there weren't many leads and it was maybe too easily assumed the girl was a runaway for too long, case left to languish - but that she had no shoes on at the time she went missing - just that should have said she likely wasn't intentionally running anywhere.

Anonymous said...

A lot of medical records are sent to India for transcribing now. Trouble is, they are not very accurate a lot of the time.

Anonymous said...

Re: Hey Jude July 25, 2016 at 2:04 PM I have learned a lot about finding RSO, court and prison info this week because of your posts and my curiosity. Hard to believe he served so little time.

A local person following the Tracy Pickett case has expressed interest in reaching out to people who were at the party to show them the pictures (and tell LE if they recognize him). In 2005 LE did follow up on the tip about an old mining pit and attempted to drain it, but were not able to because of equipment failure, no evidence was found.

Hey Jude said...

Anon - it's such a sad case, it's difficult to take in that so little has been done to find out what happened to such a young girl in so many years. Her family and friends must be heartbroken - I can't imagine the pain of not knowing, no news, no body, just a horrible likelihood. I hope the person follows up on the photos - difficult to imagine LE has not looked at him as the guy told the kids that was his name - may have given someone else's name, but interest is his criminal record and the type of crime - he might just be the guy who took her. After all this time though - no evidence, no DNA. Poor girl, poor parent/s - such a horrible world, for some.