Statement Validity Assessment (SVA) is used to assess the veracity of child witnesses’ testimony in trials for sexual offences. The author reviewed the available SVA research. Issues addressed include the accuracy of Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA; part of SVA), interrater agreement between CBCA coders, frequency of occurrence of CBCA criteria in statements, the correlations between CBCA scores and (i) interviewer’s style and (ii) interviewee’s age and social and verbal skills, and issues regarding the Validity Checklist (another part of SVA). Implications for the use of SVA assessments in criminal courts are discussed. It is argued that SVA evaluations are not accurate enough to be admitted as expert scientiﬁc evidence in criminal courts but might be useful in police investigations.

Criteria-Based Content Analysis: A Qualitative Review of the First 37 Studies.

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We found countermeasures to protocols using P300 in concealed information tests. One, the "six-probe" protocol, in Experiment 1, uses six different crime details in one run. The countermeasure: generate covert responses to irrelevant stimuli for each probe category. Hit rates were 82% in the guilty group; 18% in the countermeasure group. The average reaction time (RT) distinguished these two groups, but with overlap in RT distributions. The "one-probe" protocol, in the second experiment, uses one crime detail as a probe. Here, one group was run in 3 weeks as a guilty group, a countermeasure group, and again as in Week 1. COUNTERMEASURE: Covert responses to irrelevant stimuli. In Week 1, hit rate was 92%. In Week 2, it was 50%. In Week 3, 58%. There was no overlap in the irrelevant RT distribution in Week 2: Countermeasure use was detectable. However, in Week 3, the RT distributions resembled those of Week 1; test-beaters could not be caught. These studies have shown that tests of deception detection based on P300 amplitude as a recognition index may be readily defeated with simple countermeasures that can be easily learned.

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Simple, effective countermeasures to P300-based tests of detection of concealed information

Objective Controversy abounds regarding the process by which child sexual abuse victims disclose their experiences, particularly the extent to which and the reasons why some children, once having disclosed abuse, later recant their allegations. This study examined the prevalence and predictors of recantation among 2- to 17-year-old child sexual abuse victims. Method Case files ( n = 257) were randomly selected from all substantiated cases resulting in a dependency court filing in a large urban county between 1999 and 2000. Recantation (i.e., denial of abuse postdisclosure) was scored across formal and informal interviews. Cases were also coded for characteristics of the child, family, and abuse. Results A 23.1% recantation rate was observed. Multivariate analyses supported a filial dependency model of recantation, whereby abuse victims who were more vulnerable to familial adult influences (i.e., younger children, those abused by a parent figure and who lacked support from the nonoffending caregiver) were more likely to recant. An alternative hypothesis, that recantations resulted from potential inclusion of cases involving false allegations, was not supported. Conclusions Results provide new insight into the process by which children reveal interpersonal trauma and have implications for debates concerning the credibility of child sexual abuse allegations and treatment in dependency samples. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry , 2007;46(2):162-170.

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Filial Dependency and Recantation of Child Sexual Abuse Allegations

Children's lie-telling behavior to conceal the transgression of a parent was examined in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1 ( N = 137), parents broke a puppet and told their children (3–11-year-olds) not to tell anyone. Children answered questions about the event. Children's moral understanding of truth- and lie-telling was assessed by a second interviewer and the children then promised to tell the truth (simulating court competence examination procedures). Children were again questioned about what happened to the puppet. Regardless of whether the interview was conducted with their parent absent or present, most children told the truth about their parents' transgression. When the likelihood of the child being blamed for the transgression was reduced, significantly more children lied. There was a significant, yet limited, relation between children's lie-telling behavior and their moral understanding of lie- or truth-telling. Further, after children were questioned about issues concerning truth- and lie-telling and asked to promise to tell the truth, significantly more children told the truth about their parents' transgression. Experiment 2 ( N = 64) replicated these findings, with children who were questioned about lies and who then promised to tell the truth more likely to tell the truth in a second interview than children who did not participate in this procedure before questioning. Implications for the justice system are discussed.

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Children's Lie-Telling to Conceal a Parent's Transgression: Legal Implications

A series of 4 experiments were conducted to (a) determine the willingness of children to lie in a realistic setting, (b) compare judgments of credibility from both lay evaluations and Criterion-Based Content Analysis (CBCA), and (c) examine the effects of expert testimony regarding Statement Validity Assessment on mock jurors who were asked to make evaluations of the children's statements. In Experiment 1, 81% of children who witnessed a research assistant steal a textbook made accusations against the thief (truthful), 69% of children who did not witness the theft accused the research assistant of the theft following prompting by significant others, and 56% of the children who witnessed a significant other steal the textbook incorrectly accused the research assistant following a request from their significant other. Using the statements obtained from the children in Experiment 1, Experiments 2 and 3 found that classification accuracy of lay evaluators was significantly poorer than expert application of CB...

The Willingness of Children to Lie and the Assessment of Credibility in an Ecologically Relevant Laboratory Setting

The frequency and effects of spontaneous countermeasures attempted against a polygraph examination were examined in a mock-crime study of the comparison question test (CQT). Half of the 192 participants enacted a mock crime of theft, were subsequently given a CQT polygraph examination, and were then debriefed concerning their use of spontaneous countermeasures. Overall, 67.7% of the participants reported the use of at least one spontaneous countermeasure. Replicating a recently reported trend in this area, it was found that 45.8% of the innocent participants reported trying at least one countermeasure in an effort to make themselves look more truthful. The use of spontaneous countermeasures had no effect on the deception detection scores of guilty participants, but spontaneous countermeasure use significantly shifted innocent subjects' numerical scores in the negative direction.

Effects of Spontaneous Countermeasures Used Against the Comparison Question Test

In the present study, the authors examined the effects of outside issues on the validity of the Comparison Question Test in a laboratory mock-crime paradigm. In a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design, 192 participants either did or did not commit (a) a mock theft of a dollar (about which they were tested), or (b) a mock theft of dollars 20 (the outside issue); and they either were or were not asked questions about an outside issue. The presence of the outside issue had a strong differential impact on the participants who were innocent of the tested issue, and it dramatically moved their scores toward deception. The impact of an outside issue on the guilty was minimal. Test questions about possible outside issues were ineffective in detecting the presence of the outside issue, but they did function as comparison questions. The results have implications for understanding the high rate of false positive outcomes in some studies.

Effects of outside issues on the comparison question test.

The present study examined the effects of automating the Relevant–Irrelevant (RI) psychophysiological detection of deception test within a mock-screening paradigm. Eighty participants, recruited from the local community, took part in the study. Experimental design was a 2 (truthful/deceptive) by 2 (human/automation) factorial. Participants in the deceptive conditions attempted deception on two items of an employment application. Examinations conducted with the automated polygraph examination were significantly more accurate than examinations conducted by the human polygraph examiner. Statistical analyses revealed different patterns of physiological responses to deceptive items depending upon the automation condition. Those results have potentially interesting theoretical implications. The results of the present study are clearly supportive of additional efforts to develop a field application of an automated polygraph examination.

Susan Amato

Papers

The Willingness of Children to Lie and the Assessment of Credibility in an Ecologically Relevant Laboratory Setting

Effects of Spontaneous Countermeasures Used Against the Comparison Question Test

Effects of outside issues on the comparison question test.

Automation of a Screening Polygraph Test Increases Accuracy

Spontaneous Countermeasures During Polygraph Examinations: An Apparent Exercise in Futility