NCJ Number
195780
Editor(s)
Murray Kleiner
Date Published
2002
Length
366 pages
Annotation
This book provides useful information on polygraph testing.
Abstract
The instrumentation and procedures for polygraph testing were devised for use in law enforcement before advances in relevant scientific and technological realms of knowledge. In 1923, the Frye legal standard ruled that a scientific technique was admissible only if that technique had gained “general acceptance” as reliable in the relevant scientific community. The instrumentation, theory, and procedure of polygraphy have remained basically unchanged for decades with minor variations. Psychological and psychophysiological research and theory have progressed, refining physiological monitoring and conceptualization of psychological processes. The status of polygraphy has not been resolved within the legal community due to the involvement of the scientific community with law enforcement, or lack thereof. The polygraph application involves a complement of psychological and physiological processes for empirical investigation. In chapter 1, the comparison or control question test (CQT) is described and analyzed. In chapter 2, the concealed information test (CIT), used by Japanese police polygraph examiners, is discussed. Chapter 3 discusses the prospects and obstacles of the guilty knowledge test (GKT). Chapter 4 provides a critical review of CQT. In chapter 5, the physiological detection of deception is discussed. Chapter 6 focuses on the pre-test interview in examinations involving the CQT. Chapter 7 explores what polygraph in personnel screening is and the role it plays in law enforcement and government. Chapter 8 discusses the history and types of post-conviction sex offender testing and the American Polygraph Association. In chapter 9, polygraph countermeasures, which are anything that a subject might do in an effort to defeat or distort a polygraph examination, are explored. Chapter 10 focuses on event-related potentials (ERP) in the detection of deception, malingering, and false memories. Chapter 11 discusses the advantages, history, and research of computer methods for the psychophysiological detection of deception (PDD). Chapter 12 reviews the historical development of the approaches of courts in the United States to the admission of results of polygraph examinations, the current realities, and what the future might bring. Index