Polygraph tests are a controversial subject. There accuracy is well debated. It is known that they are not one hundred percent accurate, which is why they are not admissible in all courts. Polygraphs measure physical changes in the body, which are measured and recorded. Some states will allow a polygraph to be taken, as long as both the prosecution and the defendant agree that no matter what it says, the results stand. This means that a person can't agree to take the test and then try to have it thrown out of court because they don't like the results. Lie detectors are used on many reality shows on television such as "The Steve Wilkos Show", or "Maury," where they deal with adultery, child abuse, and many other topics. Even though polygraph tests are not one hundred percent accurate, they can be used as an indicator to whether someone is being truthful or not.
Lie detector tests, also known as polygraph tests, are barely ever used in criminal cases. The theory behind a lie detector test is that it is too stressful to lie, and that the test will be able to pick up stress associated, and read it. The term "polygraph" in Greek means "many writings". "Lie detectors are called polygraphs because the test consists of simultaneously monitoring several of the suspect's physiological functions -- breathing, pulse, and galvanic skin response -- and printing out the results on graph paper." (Lie Detector and Polygraph Tests: Are They Reliable?). When the results are printed out, the lie detector administrator can easily determine just when these biological responses occurred. If you show a maximum biologic reaction that lines up with the questions on the graph paper, this shows stress is presumed, and that stress indicates a lie. Sometime...
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...ve is a situation in which a person is lying and the results prove them to be telling the truth, but they are later found to be deceptive, and a false negative is the opposite: The subject was telling the truth and was proven deceptive when they really were telling the truth.
Polygraphs, to the best of our knowledge are only about ninety percent accurate. That means they are ten percent inaccurate or inconclusive, which is the cause for debate. Polygraphs can either be a blessing or a curse, depending on the circumstances. But if that person is telling the truth, there should be nothing to worry about. Polygraph tests are strictly science, and sometimes science isn’t always one hundred percent accurate, but it’s still useful to have. Polygraph testing has changed the technology of the world for everyone, and has the capability to make huge strides in the future.
In “The Interview” by Douglas Starr, He talks about the different techniques they use when interrogating suspects to determine whether the suspect is lying. One technique they use is called the Reid Technique and that is when
One of the last types of ways investigators are coached to detect deception is in the behavioral attitudes of a person being interviewed such as being unconcerned or over anxious (Kassin, 2005). The success rate of looking for these cues are very successful in telling if an individual is being deceitful and has surpassed any laboratory tests conducted on the subject. The laboratory test however did reveal some interesting facts. The research showed that people who had training and experience did not score better than the control group who received no training. In fact all individuals scored at the chance level with the people who had training scored just above chance or at the chance level. To check if special training in the detection of deception was more accurate a study ...
In Laurence Armand French Ph.D. and Thomas J. Young Ph.D.’s article The False Memory Syndrome: Clinical/Legal Issues for the Prosecution talks about memory recall being an unreliable form of evidence in the Criminal Justice System. French and Young state that hypnosis and lie detector tests are a misconception because “the cognitive interpretations of the emotional/autonomic aspects of the central nervous (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems are not true indicators of reality,” (p. 38).
Baird states " Frye was a 1923 Washington DC case which disallowed the admissibility of polygraph(lie detector) evidence (62)." The Frye standard states:
The polygraph is a very controversial topic when comes to the introduction of the techniques into court. The polygraph technique has not changed since first developed in 1895. What the polygraph does is measures the blood pressure fluctuation, pulse rate and respiratory rate changes. The rate of the blood pressure, pulse and respiratory rate not only changes due to the body being stressed because the person is lying, but it also changes due to anxiety, anger and medical conditions. This will affect the accuracy on the technique and give inconsistent readings within the results (Gailus, C., 2008, November
Heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductivity are monitored during the lie detector test, those responses can be controlled. Steve Elias writes, “Some people are so divorced from morality or a guilty conscience that they may test honest – because they are really good
The goal of most of these studies is to improve the way eyewitness testimonies are treated rather than completely eliminating them from the legal system. Researchers suggest to inform jurors, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and everyone involved in court cases about the unreliability of eyewitness testimonies and to inform them about how to tell between a credited eyewitness and a discredited eyewitness. The more people that are informed about this issue, the less inaccurate convictions there will
A lie is a false statement with the purposely intentions to deceive, a falsehood or falsification. Since the beginning of time when Adam and Eve were created by god, and Adams fibbed about eating the apple, lying and deception has been the consistent future of human behavior or sin. The history of the polygraph has a similar long history with the reliable means of detecting deception. Researchers believed that this type of work must be viewed with care and cautiously being that the ones who tell the lies know that they are undergoing research and likewise know they do not comparatively behave as they would in real-life settings. There has been numerous of studies that attempt to identify specific verbal and nonverbal behaviors associated with lying. The polygraph does not detect a lie; it detects respiration and cardiovascular activity. The assumption is that liars will become more nervous that one who tells the truth. In the attempt to deceit the test through unconscious actions, many different behaviors have been associated with liars deception, including gazing aversion, the increase or decrease in movement, the amount of pauses or hesitations, slow of the speech rate, and speech errors.
The 20th century was a pivotal time period for psychology. During this time period many sub-disciplines of psychology were created which in essence contributed to the growth and further development of psychology. One of those sub-disciplines of psychology that seems to constantly grow and has gained momentum over the years has been forensic psychology. Although Munsterberg was not the first to suggest that psychology should be applied to the law, instead it was Freud in 1906 during a speech to an Australian judge that there are factors within psychology that should be applied to the law. Although he was the man behind the discovery of forensic psychology and several other sub-disciplines of psychology.
Their actions can be deceiving. They manipulate people and situations, they coerce citizens, and are dishonest. They are encouraged and rewarded for their practices. Police officers often lie to suspects about witnesses and evidence. They are deceitful when attempting to learn about criminal activity. Most of these actions are sanctioned, legal, and expected. Although, police officers are allowed to be dishonest in certain circumstances, they are also required to be trustworthy, honest, and maintain the highest level of integrity. To perform their job effectively, police officers lie. They use deception, manipulation, and coercion to obtain information. Police officers often tell those suspected of committing crimes that they have physical evidence implicating the suspect when there is no such evidence. They tell suspects that they have witnesses who have identified or implicated the suspect, knowing full well the witness does not exist. Officers will tell suspects that a polygraph has shown that the suspect was lying when the officer knows that the polygraph did not indicate deception, or was inconclusive. Police officers will conceal their identity, and even deny that they are police officers while attempting to obtain evidence. Some of these practices are justifiable, others may create ethical concerns and some are beyond the law or ethical policing. Police officers abuse their power when they engage in
Using Forensic Psychology “Comes from the word "forensic" comes from the Latin word "forensis," meaning "of the forum," Where the law courts of ancient Rome were held” (ABFP). Having many different branches of forensic psychology in 2001 the American Psychological association named it a branch of clinical psychology. Forensic psychology is the study or practice of the law and expands to all aspects of law enforcement. Working closely with the court forensic psychologist is typically appointed to assess the client and their mental state, and determine the client sanity level before entering the court room.
It is often one of the most important types of evidence in a court room and plays a big role in the criminal justice system. In court, an individual is expected to remember information they saw while being present in a crime that was committed. Some people might think it is easy, if a person was there at the time of the crime committed there is no way they may get it wrong, but the reality is that many do misidentify the perpetuator and the justice system winds up incarcerating the wrong individual. Eyewitnesses have to retrieve their memories from the time the crime was occurred which can be troubling when our memories can easily be changed with what we believe to be true. Throughout the years, studies have in fact shown that eyewitness testimony is not reliable. There are many factors in eyewitness testimony that can cause a wrongful conviction some of them being, weapon focus, mental state, racial profiling and show-ups versus line-ups. The Innocence Project stated that eyewitness misidentification is the one of the main reasons to wrongful convictions which was proven by 70% of convictions overturned due to DNA testing. Two stories that are constantly used to demonstrate factors that come into play when identifying a perpetrator is the story of “Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton” as well as the story of Brenton Butler which had a documentary created called “Murder On a
However, they "would not advocate its admissibility [in court] in the absence of additional research with real-life criminal cases. " One major problem with this test is that it has no controls. Also, unless the investigators have several pieces of insider information to use in their questioning, they run the risk of making a hasty conclusion based on just one or two "deviant" responses. There may be many reasons why a subject would select the "insider" choice for a question. Furthermore, not responding differently to the "insider" choices for several questions should not be taken as proof the subject is innocent.
Can you remember the last time someone lied to you? Or how about the last time you lied to someone else? Did you ever stop and ask yourself why? There are so many different reasons that a person might lie. Maybe a lie about something to keep oneself out of trouble, or even a lie to impress other people. But either way there are always going to be serious consequences or effects of lying.
One of the components of Reid approach is training the interrogators to establish whether a suspect is lying or telling the truth by evaluating the nonverbal and verbal behavior during the interview. Many people question the effectiveness of interrogation training in assisting to discern truth from suspects. According Professor Richard Leo, people are poor in drawing accurate judgments of deception and truth (Leo, 2013). The behavior prompts used police are not diagnostic of deception, the investigators cannot differentiate false from truth denials of guilt, and yet they maintain they draw accurate