NCJ Number
208932
Journal
Police Quarterly Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2004 Pages: 429-456
Date Published
December 2004
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study examined the lie detection accuracy of 30 experienced police officers.
Abstract
An abundance of previous research has established that people are not good at distinguishing between truthful and deceptive statements. Moreover, while common sense would seem to dictate that professional lie catchers, such as police officers, should perform better than lay people in terms of their lie detection abilities, prior research findings suggest this is not the case. In fact, the lie detection accuracy rates of police have matched those of lay people in empirical evaluations and have been no better than what would be expected by chance alone. The current study involved 30 police officers who were divided into 2 groups. The first group of officers conducted interrogations of college students acting as either a guilty or innocent suspect. The interrogations were conducted in the manner of the police officers choice. The lie detection accuracy of these officers was compared to the lie detection accuracy of officers in the second group who viewed videotaped versions of the interrogations. Results indicated no significant differences in the lie detection accuracy rates of police viewing video and police interrogating live suspects. Both groups failed to detect deception at a rate better than chance. These findings are consistent with previous research. Future research should focus on the relationship between interrogation techniques and lie detection accuracy. Tables, note, references