NCJ Number
199991
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 72 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2003 Pages: 6-15
Date Published
April 2003
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article reports on a study of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) statement analysis methodology.
Abstract
Statement analysis is the word-by-word examination of a statement to ascertain its truthfulness. Investigators use statement analysis to determine whether a suspect is being truthful both in a written statement and in a spoken statement. The FBI has developed a technique of conducting statement analysis; it is this protocol that the authors analyzed in this study. More specifically, the study focused on two elements of statement analysis, lack of conviction and extraneous information, because they are strong indicators of the accuracy and completeness of a statement. One of the authors analyzed 24 random statements written by Seattle Police Officers in an effort to determine their accuracy and completeness using only lack of conviction and extraneous information components of statement analysis. Among the premises considered during the statement analysis were: (1) the premise that a statement containing a lack of conviction would not be accurate, and (2) the premise that a statement containing 25 percent or more lines of extraneous information would not be complete. The results showed that the author correctly analyzed each of the 24 statements. The findings revealed that investigators can quickly gain insight into the accuracy and completeness of statements by only using the two elements of statement analysis used in the study. Although this study was limited by its small sample size, it illustrates the statement analysis field examination technique (SAFE-T) that is recommended by the FBI.