Nothing has changed.  My optimism remains the same for this profession (high), and my opinion remains the same that your assertions that polygraph screening is invalid and should be discontinued is baseless.  You speak the words of a scientist, but offer little in the way of proof (no disrespect intended).  It would explain why the Dep't of Energy went forward with their polygraph program, despite your advice to them not to.  I also find it strange that you advocate the abolishment of polygraph screening, but support its use in the criminal arena.  Why does it work in one discipline, but not the other?  Perhaps you could enlighten us on your theory.

Regards

quickfix wrote on Aug 15^th, 2006 at 9:22pm:


Quickfix,

It took me awhile to ponder your question and come up with a sufficient responce. A good question equally deserves this attention. 

1- Criminal investigations are just that, dealing with criminals. Most criminals in my opinion are lower mental life forms and are easily fooled into the aura of the polygraph being a true lie detector. When in fact its a great prop for extracting a confession. Putting the screws to a criminal is not a problem for me. This sharply contrasts its use in the employment arena, where there is definately more protections to a suspect, then to a job candidate. Also the consequences of a confession in the venue carries a much stiffer penalty. Again the suspect can always use his rights, request a lawyer and refuse any more questioning. Without any consequences. 

2-Potential employees should never be treated as criminals, or even at a minimum treated as suspect until judged worthy. No one should have their honor or integrity challeged based on a test that is inherently flawed. The reason the polygraph is used this way is because its  cheaper and easier to disqualify someone.
And in some cases the penalty for failure is grotesque, and haunts this person the rest of their lives. The FBI being the most henious offender of these agencies in that they keep the record on file for life. There is no recourse, no rights to remove this file, no way to counter the findings. Where its better to spend the time and money neccessary in a background investigation, and prove or disprove the subjects honesty. The polygraph also insulates bureaucrats should something bad happen, it allows them denial,  this person passed a polygraph and its not their fault this person went bad. Numerous heads rolled in the fallout of the Ames Case. All of them saw this and now want to protect their sorry butts.  And since this website exists and expands the public knowlege on the polygraph, more and more people know it can be beaten. Real spys know this too, and do not fear it, and the polygraph makes it easier for a real spy to slip through, because its possible to be defeated and the US relies on this device.

3-The polygraph is a culling tool used by the FEDS and LE to weed out what they deem as not desireable employees. Potential employees should be weeded out based on true proven facts, not the result of electronic rubber hose confessionals, or because one person (the polygrapher) believes this person to be less than honest. And like any employer they want the best available. To this point I do not have a problem, but let it be based on facts from real research. Proof over opinion in all cases.


Regards ....

LieBabyCryBaby wrote on Aug 9^th, 2006 at 4:33pm:


LBCB, congratulations on hanging around long enough to be promoted to "senior user" on the forum...

I note that the WikiHow.org article, "How to Cheat a Polygraph Test (Lie Detector)" that was the original topic of this thread has now been viewed some 612,293 times:

http://www.wikihow.com/Cheat-a-Polygraph-Test-(Lie-Detector)

I note that the WikiHow.org article, "How to Cheat a Polygraph Test (Lie Detector)" that was the original topic of this thread has now been viewed some 1,186,762 times:

http://www.wikihow.com/Cheat-a-Polygraph-Test-(Lie-Detector)