Process Essay: The Use Of Forensic Evidence

of the lie detector in criminal investigation. John Larson, a “college cop”, student of Vollmer, who built the first lie detector in the Berkeley department, later said that he felt the technique had

Nearly anyone you ask would be familiar with the television show CSI. The crime lab is colorful and high-tech with all of the fun toys and machines that analysts use to test the ever abundant amount of forensic evidence from every crime scene. It makes for an exciting drama that you cannot help but get immersed in—it also gives us a false illusion, however, creating what has been dubbed as the “CSI effect” (Baskin, 2011). This effect describes the idea that crime shows such as CSI generate unreal expectations, making viewers believe that forensic evidence should be existent in all criminal trials, therefore affecting their overall perspective on a case (Baskin, 2011). But in reality, forensic labs are not that glamorous. In fact, the

PrimePoint Polygraph is a self-owned company that provides adequate polygraph, and investigative services. Tim Ruby is both the owner, and operator of PrimePoint. Ruby is a full time forensic psychophysiologist for the government. He has been a polygrapher for six years. In addition, he conducts testing for post convicted sex offenders, and pre-employment for law enforcement. Ruby got interested in the polygraph field as a former police officer, and criminal investigator. He was given the opportunity to attend the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s polygraph school, which sparked his interest in the field. He then pursued the field by earning an Associate Degree of Criminal Justice Administration, as well as a Bachelors Degree of Science and

(Comer, 2014) In the article entitled “In the Dark, Inclusive: The truth about lie detector tests”, the author talks about how lie detector results have been incredibly false; “..Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer and the Russian mole Aldrich Ames, who used so-called "countermeasures" to beat polygraphs twice in the 1980s and early 1990s... Conversely, innocent people have failed the polygraph, like Bill Wegerle, who was suspected of killing his wife in 1986 until DNA evidence traced the murder to BTK killer Dennis Rader”(Baran and Vogel, In the Dark, Inclusive: The truth about lie detector tests, apmreports.org). Whoever is administering the test must also know exactly what they are doing so that no errors are made. (Comer, 2014) I have also wondered personally before if someone who takes the test is known to have struggled with anxiety previously would get a bad reading from the machine, even if they are telling the truth.

between a cut (an injury that is longer than deep) and a stab wound (an injury

People might argue that truth serum should be used during police investigations. They would say it will tell us the truth about someone there are challenges to it though.

“Until recently, courts have held that the results of polygraph evidence are too unreliable to be admitted at trial unless the parties have stipulated to admission. Today, however, a few jurisdictions permit the introduction of polygraph evidence if it is determined reliable, that is, polygraph evidence is not automatically excluded but may be if found to be unreliable in a specific case” (Hall, 2015.) The pros to a polygraph test is the evidence that it can give a prosecution or even the defendant with what the results of the test ot be. For example, if the question was, “Did you murder Mrs. Potter,” and the defendant answered, “No,” depending on the results of the polygraph test can be a piece of evidence to help convict or to help acquit.

However, this fear is ill founded and easily dismissed when the larger picture of the polygraph’s use is examined. As the Supreme Court of New Jersey explains, “the Parole Board can use the machine-generated results of the polygraph examination for therapeutic treatment purposes only” (J.B. v. New Jersey State Parole Board). The emphasis is the court’s, and it’s important that it’s so heavily emphasized. This ensures that false positives from the polygraph won’t be able to damage an offender’s future due to a few inaccurate or misinterpreted readings. So while it’s possible that offenders might be marked as lying when they weren’t, it likely won’t amount to much since information derived from a polygraph in a therapeutic session used against the offender in a trial.

Aldrich Ames was not an exception either, there have been many other guilty people who have passed the test. Karl Koecher, Ana Belen, Montes, and Leandro Aragoncilla were all spies who successfully tricked the polygraph test. The test also failed to catch Gary Ridgway who became known as the “Green River Killer”. Ridgway was only caught 20 years later from DNA evidence that was

An example of these cases include the interrogations of Ryan Brunn. In the case where Ryan Brunn was questioned, he lied and failed. He denied lying and was then administered another test, where he confessed that he had killed 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera. He realized that the he could not pass the test unless he confessed, which he did. He confessed to raping the girl, cutting her throat, wrapping her in a garbage bag, and dumping her body into a trash compactor. Another example of a case that has been solved by the polygraph test is the murders of Skyla Whitaker and Taylor Paschal-Placker. These two women were murdered by Kevin Sweat, who had agreed to take a polygraph test because he thought he could outsmart the test. During his interrogation, police discovered that he had burned the bodies on his father’s land. When the police went to investigate, they found the burned remains of his fiancee and .40 caliber shell casings. On the contrary, there are also many cases that have used the lie detector test in which they were not accurate. A case where the polygraph test has been proven wrong would include the interrogation of Gary Leon Ridgway. In 1984 he was accused of murdering 48 women and he passed the polygraph test. Later, after DNA confirmed his criminal activities Gary confessed to murdering almost twice the number of women and girls he was initially accused of killing. If the court would have

Polygraphs are not lie finders but rather are just utilized in such a way. A polygraph test measures a certain something: nervousness. All these physiological measures are just connected with terror and uneasiness. What's more, individuals are on edge, some of the time, when they're coming clean, and they can be not on edge, now and again, when they're lying. The more rehearsed you are at lying, the less tension is related with it. There is an assortment of things that can impact the consequences of a polygraph apprehension, needing to utilize the restroom, pregnancy, medications and liquor, absence of rest, blood pressure problems, tight garments, disorder, headache, and many more. So how would you realize that there is not something happening,

Professor Darlene, taking your class have orientated me into four years University level. Also, I have been curious about forensic and how it works but this class have actually educated me on most expect of forensic science and I am looking forward in taking more of your classes. Nonetheless, professor Darlene I am seriously worried to the extent that am depressed about my grade. I worked so hard in your class, but for some reason am still not during well when it comes to the quizes. Please sir, can you give me an extra credit work to do for my grade to come up. Professor I don't want to fail your class give me this opportunity. It's so hard working a full-time as a correctional Officer inside the jail and still read your course materia at

only one study has been made and it was found to be 80% correct. Even the Guilty Knowledge Test, which is considered as most effectivegave false positive result between 1 to 6%.The main reason for False positive results are hidden in its marking system. In polygraphy, it is assumed that a person showing greater response to relevant question to that of control questions or irrelevant question is lying. Generally, the comparison questions asked cover a much wider base whereas relevant questions are strictly restricted to the purpose for which interrogation is being done. Following are some of the reasons explained for falser positive result in polygraphy:

Credibility- Now, I would like to consider myself an expert lie detector, but apparently binge-watching 12 seasons of Criminal Minds in 3 months does not give me those qualifications. So to better inform and assist you, my lovely audience, I did some research, mostly utilizing online materials.

The polygraph test is one of the most controversial criminal investigative techniques of all-time. From the initial years of the invention to today, there is not a consensus about the investigative tool. That is why there are many people for and against the administration of polygraph tests. Therefore, in order to develop a clear picture of the polygraph test the history of the test must be established. Although, there are many sources that have well documented concerns about the invention, the polygraph test is still around after almost 80 years.