Detecting and Countering Deceit
Kevin Sweeney · 2022
The ability to detect deceit in an interviewee is often considered of enormous value by investigators. Certainly, being misled can be detrimental in any investigation. This chapter explores some of the research around verbal and non-verbal methods of detecting deceit. Many of these methods can be useful in some situations but they are not always reliable. This chapter therefore explores methods to present evidence in a tactical way by using an interactive strategy with the interviewee that is very effective at uncovering deceit. However, knowing someone is lying is usually insufficient as it must be proved or else the person must reveal the truth. Using evidence is of tremendous importance to move the interviewee from deceit to giving a truthful account. Through the tactical use of evidence, the perception of the interviewee is altered such that deception is no longer a valid strategy, and the truth may then become the best option instead. The chapter also looks at using evidence to respond to some other counter-interview strategies such as a claimed lack of memory by using adverse inferences based on the available evidence.