Police confidence in lie detection: an assessment of crime types, Miranda and interview techniques
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20093821211210477 |
| Pages | 26-37 |
| Published date | 16 March 2012 |
| Date | 16 March 2012 |
| Author | Durant Frantzen,Salih Hakan Can |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Public policy & environmental management,Sociology |
Police confidence in lie detection:
an assessment of crime types,
Miranda and interview techniques
Durant Frantzen and Salih Hakan Can
Abstract
Purpose – Experimental research on lie detection has indicated that accuracy rates hover around
chance but that police are significantly better in detecting deception in ‘‘high’’ stakes rather than ‘‘low’’
stakes situations. This paper has three objectives: to compare confidence levels in lie detection for
property crime and violent crime detectives; to compare differences in confidence levels for custodial
and noncustodial interviews; and to evaluate the relationship between interrogation techniques and lie
detection confidence.
Design/methodology/approach – The study uses self-report data from a sample of Texas police
detectives.
Findings – The results of this study show that property crime detectives are significantly more confident
in their lie detection ability than are violent crime detectives. The results also highlight thefact that police
detectives are significantly less confident in their lie detection abilities when the suspect has been
provided his or her Miranda warnings.
Originality/value – The study highlights the disparity in findings derived from self-reported data and
experimental studies on veracity judgments and the need to account for contextual factors that
ultimately impact the ecological validity of this research.
Keywords Police, Lie detection, Crime types, Miranda, Interview techniques, Police custody,Accuracy,
United States of America
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Police detectives routinely make judgments about the truthfulness of statements made in
formal and informal contexts. Extant research indicates that law enforcement officers fair no
better than ordinary people in their lie detection capability, with accuracy rates ranging from
50-55 percent (Bond and DePaulo, 2006). The vast majority of this research, however, has
involved college students in controlled settings while few studies have focused on police
self-reports of lie detection accuracy.Of the experimental studies that involve criminal justice
officials, most involve lie scenarios, or mock simulations, which attempt to replicate actual
police interviews. Further, the deception literature largely focuses on metacognitive and
behavioral factors that are indicative of deception with little attention devoted to contextual
factors. For instance, there is no documented evidence on variations in lie detection
accuracy for officers assigned to specific investigative units (e.g. violent and property
crimes). In addition, although research shows that police conduct noncustodial interviews
with regularity (Leo and White, 1999; Thomas and Leo, 2002), no published studies have
examined the question as to whether the legal parameters of the interview, (i.e. whether the
interview is classified as custodial or noncustodial) have any effect on lie detection
confidence.
PAGE 26
j
JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY
j
VOL. 2 NO. 1 2012, pp. 26-37, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2009-3829 DOI 10.1108/20093821211210477
Durant Frantzen is based at
Texas A&M University, San
Antonio, Texas, USA, and
Salih Hakan Can is based at
Penn State University,
Schuylkill Haven,
Pennsylvania, USA.
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