Though polygraph has been the mainstay for government and police departments since World War II, it has undergone substantial transformation in recent years. Fundamentals of Polygraph Practice bridges the gap between the outmoded practices and today's validated testing and analysis protocols. The goal of this reference is to thoroughly and concisely describe the evidence-based practices of polygraphy. Coverage will include: psychophysiology, testing techniques, data collection, data analysis, ethics, polygraph law, alternate technologies and much more. This text addresses the foundational needs of polygraph students, and is written to be useful and accessible to attorneys, forensic scientists, consumers of polygraph services, and the general public. - Includes protocols and fundamentals of polygraph practice - Covers the history of lie detection, psychophysiology, data collection, techniques and testing, data analysis and much more - Authors are internationally recognized in the polygraph field

A polygraph test provides useful information in many scenarios and can be a crucial component of a criminal investigation, even a required step for security screenings. No matter the purpose, daily practitioners must embrace a more personalized approach to testing to achieve the most credible results. Author Tuvya T. Amsel, PhD, has conducted tens of thousands of interviews and tests while working with law enforcement agencies and both small businesses and megacorporations across the globe, providing him with several decades' worth of knowledge. In this invaluable handbook, he explains how to deal with the practical issues and problems that polygraph examiners encounter on a regular basis and offers solutions to each that promote assessment accuracy. Topics covered range from resolving chart anomalies and contradictory responses to conducting confirmatory testing. He addresses contaminating factors, procedures for testing foreigners, and best practices for examiners traveling abroad to perform assessments. Aside from possessing basic procedural and statistical knowledge, the best examiners must be prepared to deal with unique situations-in the end, the tests are conducted on human beings who have a great deal at stake. Approaching each as an individual with a custom-designed test will ensure more accurate results-and produce effective outcomes.

The polygraph, often portrayed as a magic mind-reading machine, is still controversial among experts, who continue heated debates about its validity as a lie-detecting device. As the nation takes a fresh look at ways to enhance its security, can the polygraph be considered a useful tool? The Polygraph and Lie Detection puts the polygraph itself to the test, reviewing and analyzing data about its use in criminal investigation, employment screening, and counter-intelligence. The book looks at: The theory of how the polygraph works and evidence about how deceptivenessâ€"and other psychological conditionsâ€"affect the physiological responses that the polygraph measures. Empirical evidence on the performance of the polygraph and the success of subjects' countermeasures. The actual use of the polygraph in the arena of national security, including its role in deterring threats to security. The book addresses the difficulties of measuring polygraph accuracy, the usefulness of the technique for aiding interrogation and for deterrence, and includes potential alternativesâ€"such as voice-stress analysis and brain measurement techniques.

Throughout history, there has been an intrinsic need for humans to detect deception in other humans. Developed in 1923, the polygraph machine was a tool designed to do just this. To date, there have been many improvements made to the basic polygraph instrument. This book outlines the instrumentation as well as the latest in questioning techniques and methods available to the professional interviewer to determine truth from deception. The book covers psychology and physiology, a history of polygraph with the advances of leading figures, question formulation, data analysis, legal implications and legal cases, and the author’s developed technique Integrated Zone Comparison Technique (IZCT).

John F. Sullivan was a polygraph examiner with the CIA for thirty-one years, during which time he conducted more tests than anyone in the history of the CIA's program. The lie detectors act as the Agency's gatekeepers, preventing foreign agents, unsuitable applicants, and employees guilty of misconduct from penetrating or harming the Agency. Here Sullivan describes his methods, emphasizing the importance of psychology and the examiners' skills in a successful polygraph program. Sullivan acknowledges that using the polygraph effectively is an art as much as a science, yet he convincingly argues that it remains a highly reliable screening device, more successful and less costly than the other primary method, background investigation. In the thousands of tests that Sullivan conducted, he discovered double agents, applicants with criminal backgrounds, and employee misconduct, including compromising affairs and the mishandling of classified information. But Gatekeeper is more than Sullivan's memoirs. It is also a window to the often acrimonious and sometimes alarming internal politics of the CIA: the turf wars over resources, personnel, and mandate; the slow implementation of quality control; the aversion to risk-taking; and the overzealous pursuit of disqualifying information. In an age when the intelligence community's conduct is rightly being questioned, Sullivan contributes a fascinating personal account of one of the Agency's many important tasks.

A step by step instruction manual on how to successfully pass a polygraph exam