Concealed information under stress: A test of the orienting theory in real‐life police interrogations

Purpose. The concealed information test (CIT) is a polygraph test that assesses recognition of critical (e.g., crime) information. Laboratory studies showing stronger heart rate deceleration to concealed compared to control information indicate that the orienting response (OR) accounts for responding in the CIT. An important restriction to these findings is that laboratory circumstances impose little or no stress on the examinees, and that under real‐life stress defensive responding may occur. Method. To examine the validity of the CIT under realistic stress, we analysed the data from 65 card tests conducted during real‐life police polygraph interrogations. Results. Baseline heart rate was higher than that observed in the laboratory, confirming that the situation was stress inducing. As in the laboratory, the concealed cards elicited greater heart rate deceleration compared to the control cards. Conclusions. The data support the OR theory of the CIT under real‐life stress.     

Forensic mental health assessment in France: Recommendations for quality improvement

The quality of forensic mental health assessment has been a growing concern in various countries on both sides of the Atlantic, but the legal systems are not always comparable and some aspects of forensic assessment are specific to a given country. This paper describes the legal context of forensic psychological assessment in France (i.e. pre-trial investigation phase entrusted to a judge, with mental health assessment performed by preselected professionals called “experts” in French), its advantages and its pitfalls. Forensic psychiatric or psychological assessment is often an essential and decisive element in criminal cases, but since a judiciary scandal which was made public in 2005 (the Outreau case) there has been increasing criticism from the public and the legal profession regarding the reliability of clinical conclusions. Several academic studies and a parliamentary report have highlighted various faulty aspects in both the judiciary process and the mental health assessments. The heterogeneity of expert practices in France appears to be mainly related to a lack of consensus on several core notions such as mental health diagnosis or assessment methods, poor working conditions, lack of specialized training, and insufficient familiarity with the Code of Ethics. In this article we describe and analyze the French practice of forensic psychologists and psychiatrists in criminal cases and propose steps that could be taken to improve its quality, such as setting up specialized training courses, enforcing the Code of Ethics for psychologists, and calling for consensus on diagnostic and assessment methods.     

Adaptations of Aboriginal justice in the United States

Aboriginal justice in the United States is unique for two reasons. First, Aboriginal Natives subscribed to the Harmony Ethos, a system whereby Natives did not detach themselves from nature. Unlike Western cultures, they lived cooperatively with ‘Mother Earth’, ‘Father Sky’ and everything these two entities represented. Secondly, no other group in US history has been subjected to the magnitude of deliberate policies aimed at their destruction. Manifest physical genocide towards Native peoples was exercised and sanctioned by the US government until the 1890s while the more subtle practice of ‘cultural genocide’ continues to the present. Yet, in spite of these assaults on Native culture, attributes of their Aboriginal ways have not only survived but have experienced a resurgence within the past decade. Unfortunately, it appears that the more Native traditions survive, the more adamant are local, state, and federal efforts towards destroying any remnants of traditional values and customs including tribal autonomy.     

Undergraduate justice system education and training at San Jose state university: An historical perspective

Since its inception in 1930, the Administration of Justice Department at San Jose State University has undergone numerous changes. This article develops a curriculum orientation matrix to analyze those changes. The results of the application of the matrix indicate movement from a law enforcement, training emphasis to the present system-oriented, professional-social science mix.     

Police Powers and Accountability in a Democratic Society: Introductory Report

This article by general rapporteur Joachim Kersten introduces the reports which were presented at the Twelfth Criminological Colloquium, organised by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, from 24-26 November 1999. Europe is undergoing a phase of rapid change. This affects the conditions of policing in each country and on the European continent as a whole. It is actually the legal, political and cultural context of policing that is undergoing rapid change. This colloquium and earlier ones carried out by the Council of Europe served a crucial purpose: they are an assessment in the European context of what is happening in relation to the police, police ethics and human rights in democratic societies.     

Drugs and chronic alcohol abuse in drivers

Blood specimens from 210 drivers (179 male and 31 female) apprehended in Luxembourg from autumn 2001 to spring 2002 and requested for the determination of their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) were tested for medicinal drugs, illicit drugs, and chronic alcohol abuse (by quantification of the carbohydrate-deficient transferrin: CDT). These additional analyses were performed anonymously and with permission of state prosecutor. The 22.8% had consumed medicinal drugs, with benzodiazepines and antidepressants (10.9 and 7.6%, respectively) as main psychoactive classes. Cannabis was the most detected illicit drug (9.5%) but only one in three had THC detectable in their blood. Association of two or more psychoactive substances (poly-drug use) was observed in 27.6% of drivers (90.6% of drug consumers). On the basis of CDT values, 29.5% of drivers investigated were assumed to be chronic alcohol abusers. Statistical analysis revealed that chronic alcohol abuse and medicinal psychoactive drugs were associated with significantly higher BAC. Medicinal psychoactive drugs were clearly associated with poly-drug use, and were furthermore detected at supra-therapeutic levels in 34.9%.