Term Paper on "Criminal Justice the Polygraph Remains a Controversial"

Term Paper 5 pages (1376 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Criminal Justice

The polygraph remains a controversial tool in criminal investigation ever since 1917, when William M. Marston, an American professor, first invented it. However, for almost a century now, the polygraph continues to be used in many countries as an important tool not only for criminal investigations, but also in intelligence screening, as a 'pre trial stipulation', and in the recruitment process. The polygraph is a tool that analyses certain physiological changes as a person is subject to interrogation. A forensic psychophysiologist then assesses the fluctuations in the data from the polygraph test and uses them for the 'psychophysiological detection of deception'. It is common for a person to experience certain involuntary reactions or what are known as autonomic responses when he or she is subject to stress. By the simultaneous measurement of physiological changes such as 'electrodermal response', 'cardiovascular changes', blood pressure and breathing patterns, a psychophysiologist infers either truth or deception from the statements obtained from the suspected person.

The polygraph is used in many countries in their criminal investigation process. Despite the several successful cases where polygraph has helped solve cases without other leads, it has not found universal acceptance. As a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union says, "Despite claims of 'lie detector' examiners, there is no machine that can detect lies," "The 'lie detector' does not measure truth-telling; it measures changes in blood pressure, breath rate and perspiration rate, but those physiological changes can be triggered by a wide range of emotions." [Kevin Bonsor] the most common argument is that the physiological changes that are induced are not uniquely attributed to the stress of lying, as there are other factors that can also result in such fluctuations. (BCSSE, 2003)

Voice stress analysers, widely touted as an alternative to polygraphs, were first used by the U.S. army in the Vietnam War to identify Vietnamese citizens from the rebels. Today, we have Computer-based voice stress analysers, which can help identify the stress levels in speech during an interrogation. The essential principle behind the CVSA is that stress affects speech, which can be easily identified. Normal speech is made up of two components namely amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM). It has been verified that during stress the FM component diminishes to such an extent that a computer can monitor this change successfully, thus helping in identifying stress due to deception. The measurement of inaudible fluctuations of human voice or what are known as 'micro-tremors' are used to analyse voice patterns for stress. A recent study commissioned by Department of Defence Polygraph Institute (DODPI) showed CVSA to be ineffective as a definitive lie detection tool. Mitchell S. Sommers, an associate professor of psychology at the St. Louis University, and an important member of the study states, "We tested one of the more popular voice-stress lie detection technologies and got dismal results. Voice-stress analysis is fairly effective in identifying certain variations in stress levels in human speech, but high levels of stress do not necessarily correlate with deception,." (Gerry Everding, 2004) the study found that the CVSA tests proved to be inconsistent. As Sommers says, "In our evaluation, voice-stress analysis detected some instances of deception, but its ability to do so was consistently less than chance -- you could have gotten better results by flipping a coin" (Gerry Everding, 2004)

2) Preserving the Integrity of Crime Scene is of utmost importance for the case to be solved swiftly and accurately. Most often the entire case may hang on the careful, methodical and efficient manner in which the crime scene is preserved, the initial data gathered, analysed and presented. That is to say that the professional manner in which the crime scene is handled would make all the difference between justice being served and a culprit escaping punishment. The first and foremost task for the officers who initially respond to the crime scene is to secure the perimeter of the crime scene. It is not uncommon for investigators to arrive at the crime scene that is disturbed by relatives and curious bystanders resulting in the destruction of evidence. Erecting barrier posts and using barrier tapes… READ MORE

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