Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
The BBC reports: Convicted paedophiles could be forced to take lie detector tests to ensure they stay away from children, under plans by Home Secretary David Blunkett. He wants compulsory testing in Sussex, Northumberland and the West Midlands – currently piloting voluntary tests. Probation officers would ask offenders whether they had had contact with children …
Home affairs editor Alan Travis reports for the Guardian. Home Office plans to introduce compulsory lie detector tests to ensure that convicted paedophiles do not offend again are worrying cabinet members. The home secretary, David Blunkett, has admitted to his cabinet colleagues that the plans “are not without controversy” and is seeking legal clearance from …
David Derbyshire and Roger Highfield report for the Daily Telegraph Excerpt: A scientist yesterday questioned a proposal to use lie-detector tests on convicted paedophiles to see if they would reoffend. Initial trials by two American polygraph examiners in the West Midlands, Northumberland and Surrey found that a third of those taking the tests lied when …
The Guardian reports. Excerpt: Sex offenders may soon be asked to take lie detector tests to monitor their behaviour, the national probation service said today. The machines, which monitor physical responses such as heart rate, could be used regularly if further research proved their reliability, the service said. Polygraph tests were tested by the national …
Robert Winnett writes for The Sunday Times of London on the plans of British insurance companies to use voice stress analysis to evaluate the veracity of claims. Excerpt: THE voices of claimants who telephone their insurers after an accident or theft will go through a lie detector under radical plans drawn up by some of …
BBC News reports that the British Security Service MI5 is considering adopting polygraph screening. Excerpt: Tom King, chairman of the [Intelligence and Security Committee], said that it was actively looking at the possibility of using lie detectors to vet recruits and root out traitors. The defections to the then Soviet Union of Guy Burgess, Donald …