Lie detection: historical, neuropsychiatric and legal dimensions

Lying and deception are behaviors that have been studied and discussed extensively in the scientific, philosophical and legal communities for centuries. The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the literature and thinking to date about deception, followed by an analysis of the efficacy and evolution of lie detection techniques. The first part explores the definitions of lying, from animal behaviorists' perspectives to philosophical theories, along with demographics and research about the prevalence of lying and characteristics of those who lie. This is followed by a discussion of possible motivations for lying, moral arguments about the legitimacy of or prohibition against lying, and developmental theorists' explanations for the growth of a human being's capacity to lie. The first section provides an introduction for the second part, a historical and critical review of lie detection techniques. Early methods, such as phrenology and truth serums are contrasted with more modern-day approaches, such as polygraphy and functional MRIs. Conclusions are drawn about whether technology has really advanced the art of detecting deception. Finally, the article enters a discussion about the law's response to lie detection methods and to deception in general. United States landmark cases, at both the state and federal level, are critiqued with regard to their impact on the admissibility into court of lie detection methods as evidence. Just as the scientific community has been wary of embracing many of these methods, so has the legal community. Through a review of the legal, scientific and pseudo-scientific issues surrounding deception, a greater understanding is reached of the complexity of this universal and morally loaded behavior.     

What Clients Know: Client perspectives and legal competence

This article does not have an abstract     

What constitutes a positive result in hair analysis: proposal for the establishment of cut-off values

Hair is still a seldom used specimen in most laboratories but its analysis has the potential of making a valuable contribution. Despite the many worthwhile reports, the scientific community at large still has reservations about the validity of hair analysis. Some of this is due to a lack of consensus among the active investigators on how to interpret the results from an analysis of hair. In USA, passive exposure seems to be a major problem, which can only be eliminated with difficulty. On the other hand, in Europe, scientists are performing standard decontamination procedures. It would be very helpful if a group of active researchers on hair analysis, representative of academic, government and private laboratories could define what are the areas of agreement and what are the issues that require further efforts to get a consensus. We propose the following guidelines: (1) a complete decontamination procedure, including the analysis of the wash solution; (2) two distinct analytical methods (immunoassay and GC/MS, or two different GC/MS methods); (3) the establishment of cut-off values (using 30-mg hair samples), 0.5 ng/mg of 6-MAM in the case of heroin abuse, and 1 ng/mg of cocaine in the case of cocaine abuse, which can be decreased to 0.5 ng/mg when use is supported by other evidence of drug intake.     

监狱精神病罪犯问题及法律规制

对精神健康问题的关注程度标志着一个国家文明程度的提升,相应地对精神病人的刑事处遇政策也体现了一个国家刑事法治的发达水平,目前,监狱精神病犯人数有所增加,对这些特殊人群的关爱和保障要尽快提上议事日程,应当结合监狱的具体实际,建立罪犯服刑能力鉴定机制,强化“司法审查关”;构建强制治疗程序,发挥其防卫社会、治疗疾病和保障人权的功能;在监狱系统设立专门的精神病医院或监区,以维护监狱安全和保障罪犯权利。     

Family violence reported in a psychiatric emergency room

The prevalence of family violence reported in psychiatric emergency rooms is relatively undocumented, despite the clinical and legal concern for dangerousness. This study assesses the prevalence of aggression incidents reported to clinicians and physicians during evaluation interviews (n =389).Two-thirds of the total number of subjects reported being involved in an aggression incident sometime in their past. Only 8% reported being the victim of such incidents. About one-half of the cases involved physical assaults; nearly one-half of these assaults had family members as victims. One third of the total cases had been assaultive within 3 months; one sixth had been assaultive within 2 weeks of visiting the hospital. Clinicians and researchers are urged to consider more systematically family violence in psychiatric settings.     

Swedish legal scholarship concerning protection of vulnerable groups: Therapeutic and proactive dimensions

This paper presents a brief overview of the legal theoretical problems that arise in connection with the societal ambition of protecting vulnerable groups. One of the central difficulties in legislation with proactive and therapeutic ambitions arises from the link between law and philosophy of science, i.e., the relationship between facts and norms. It is shown that Therapeutic Jurisprudence differs in several aspects from Swedish legal scholarship that follows Scandinavian Legal Realism. It is also demonstrated that Therapeutic Jurisprudence has several similarities with the so-called Proactive Approach. This paper suggests that Therapeutic Jurisprudence may serve as a useful legal theoretical perspective in Swedish legal scholarship, especially when studying complex and vague regulations with a future focus. Two examples from Swedish legislation are examined: (a) Laws regulating compulsory care of abused or neglected children, and (b) laws related to the mentally ill. This paper illustrates the complexity in these acts, and poses the question of whether the regulations serve their purpose of providing adequate care for and protection of those in need.     

The clinical trial research participant as an inside trader: a legal and policy analysis

This Article examines whether a participant in a clinical research trial for a drug obtains material nonpublic information about the drug and its manufacturer or licensor and, if so, whether the participant may lawfully trade securities based on that information. This issue has been noted but not examined in depth in several articles in recent years. After an introduction to the federal law of insider trading and a discussion of relevant aspects of a supervised research trial, the Article concludes that, absent an agreement to the contrary, the participant would be free to trade securities based on any material nonpublic information learned in the trial. The author evaluates the extent to which the information is material and nonpublic and then presents the policy issues surrounding whetherthe participantshould be precluded from trading when in possession of material nonpublic information gained as a result of participation in the trial. While not resolving the competing policy considerations, including the value of allowing participants to make disclosure of their experiences in the trial before publication of the results in a peer reviewed journal, the Article presents an approach for preventing the misuse of material nonpublic information gained in the clinical trial context, by obtaining an agreement from the participant, and an agreement from the limited circle of persons to whom the participant should be allowed to make disclosure in any event (such as his personal physician and family members), that would render any trading by them unlawful under the federal law of insider trading.