US police officers’ knowledge regarding behaviors indicative of deception: Implications for eradicating erroneous beliefs through training

Abstract

The current study surveyed a random sample of Texas law enforcement officers (n?=?109) about their knowledge regarding behaviors indicative of deception. The officers were not highly knowledgeable about this topic, overall performing at a chance level in assessing how various behavioral cues relate to deception. Confidence in one's skill was unrelated to accuracy, and officers who reported receiving the most training and utilizing these skills more often were more confident but no more accurate in their knowledge of the behaviors that typically betray deception. The authors compare these results to previous studies that have examined officers’ beliefs in other countries and discuss the implication of these results in terms of developing future training programs that may debunk the common misconceptions that officers possess.     

Use of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fingerprints for identity determination: comparison with traditional paternity testing methods--Part I

A study involving comparison of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) finger-printing test with traditional methods used for paternity testing is presented. Samples from 191 cases were tested for a series of blood group and polymorphic protein markers. DNA "fingerprints" were then obtained for all samples using the multilocus probes 33.6 and 33.15. The results of DNA fingerprinting correlated well with those of traditional methods and proved to be informative in cases where traditional methods yielded inconclusive or insufficient results.