NCJ Number
207383
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 73 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 7-12
Date Published
November 2004
Length
6 pages
Annotation
In order to identify relationships between truthfulness and the features of written statements, this study analyzed 60 narratives written by suspects and victims.
Abstract
The analysis found three features of the statements that distinguished truthful statements from deceptive ones: the length of the criminal-incident section of the statement, the presence of unique sensory details, and the inclusion of descriptions of emotions. The criminal-incident section of the statement explains what happened, how it occurred, and who was involved. Compared to the introduction and conclusions of the criminal incident, the section that details the writer's perceptions of what happened should be the longest; otherwise, the writer may be avoiding the risks of providing a deceptive account. Detailed descriptions of sensory perceptions, i.e., pertaining to sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, generally indicate truthfulness, because the five senses are the means of experiencing what is actually happening in a given situation. Memory studies have found that the recall of experienced events includes more information on emotional reactions than does the telling of events that were not personally experienced. Truthful victims are likely to include descriptions of fear, anger, embarrassment, or shock in their accounts of what happened to them. 12 notes