Customer Reviews

Lietest: Deception, Truth & the Polygraph

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As someone who works in a law enforcement related field, and encounters police officers from the 'Keeler school' on a regular basis, I now understand why many of their reports are unreliable, and resulted in a requirement in my jurisdiction that all polygraphs be tape recorded. To advise polygraphists to take examinees by the hand and kneel in prayer, so as to increase the likelihood of obtaining a confession, is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. Irrespective of whether it works, the terms 'over reaching' and 'ethical' come to mind. Perhaps ethics, as most people understand the term, is a foreign concept to Mr. Harrelson.

It becomes apparent that the author's techniques are questionable rather early in the book, particularly when he begins alternating between referring to himself in the third/first person. This book appears to be no more than a self-serving opportunity for the author ramble on as to what he perceives to be his great skills and talents. Hopefully the next generation of law enforcement personnel and polygraphists will display more professionalism and eschew the John Wayne and J. Edgar Hoover techniques.

"Lie Test" is an impressive compilation of captivating stories presented in a clear and easy to read format. Further, this work could be a text on how to conduct a successful interrogation. Mr. Harrelson is an intriguing personality with an apparent uncanny ability to understand human behavior. His book is both enchanting and educational. A must read for any person interested in polygraph or in the art of interrogation!

This book tries to continue the misconceptions about polygraphs -- that they have some amount of accuracy and usefulness. It does not mention the devastation that it has caused for cases where the polygraph (polygraph "expert") falsely accuses someone of lying.

Polygraphs only record, however accurate, physiological responses. The correspondence of these reactions to any deception is a matter of interpretation. The interpretation is always clouded by presumptions of what is the "real" truth and how the subject "should" be reacting.

This book does not explain how easy it is for a subject to apply countermeasures to manipulate the results. This book does not explain how the polygraph is oppressive and dangerous to the uneducated (about the polygraph). The uneducated do not know that the polygraph is used as a fear tactic to trick the subject into a confession. They do not know that, no matter how impartial the examiner may act, the object is to "discover" something that is being withheld. The book does not explain that this is why the interrogator accuses so many subjects of lying or withholding the truth. It is to frustrate them and get them to confess, either at the polygraph or afterwards in court.

Better alternatives are Charles Clifton's "Deception Detection"...

UNEDUCATING AND DULL