Lie detector tests for sex offenders really work

LIE detector tests for sex offenders uncover huge amounts of incriminating evidence and would help protect the public from attacks, according to researchers.

Academics found convicted paedophiles and other sex offenders were six times more likely to reveal incriminating information if they took a polygraph test, compared with a regular interview.

Researchers at the University of Kent were commissioned by the

National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to carry out a two-year study into the technology.

They concluded that compulsory lie detector tests would be the most effective way forward.

Lie detector tests have been used in the UK, but evidence from them is inadmissible in court.

Professor Jane Wood, a chartered forensic psychologist who led the project, said: ‘Our findings support the police use of polygraph testing, particularly mandatory polygraph testing, as a supportive tool for managing individuals convicted of sexual offences who live in the community.

‘This is because polygraph testing elicits important new information related to risk that would ordinarily remain unknown.’

The researchers looked at results from 800 tests. They found offenders revealed far more incriminating ‘riskrelevant disclosures’ – or ‘RRDs’ for short – under lie detector tests than they did under ordinary interviews with police or probation officers.

Convicted sex offenders were six times more likely to make an RRD. Suspects were seven times more likely. Offenders trying to have their restrictions lifted under the sex offenders’ register were an astonishing 42 times more likely to make an RRD.

Polygraph testing also led to ‘more in-depth disclosures’. For example, paedophiles admitted more about their sexual interest in children, and their ability to access children.

The report could be used by the NPCC to lobby for change in the law. Spokesman Chief Constable Michelle Skeer said: ‘We will give this research careful consideration.’

‘Elicits new information’