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Re: scales to measure lying in child forensic interviews
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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007>Hi Lisa,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007>Frankly, I find the idea troubling that people
are using a scale to measure child lying in a forensic interview. I
know of no scale, device or analysis protocol (including polygraphs or statement
validity analysis or Gardner's SAL scale) that has even minimally proven
psychometric adequacy for this purpose with this population. Sure,
you can find advocates for all these approaches, but the fact remains that none
are generally accepted in the scientific community. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007>The best advice I could offer to anyone investigating
crimes against children is this: Quit trying to hang the entire
determination about an allegation on the subtle nuances of children's
statements during high-stress snapshot interviews. Beware the shrinks
and junk science proponents who claim to have a secret pipeline to the
truth. Don't underestimate the importance of good, solid,
investigative police work. You know, interview a range of
people, look for physical evidence, check backgrounds, look for potential
witnesses, follow leads, check for possible collateral victims, carefully
examine corroborative or uncorroborative facts, etc. I would have more
confidence in using this type of evidence to evaluate an allegation rather than
using some scale with unknown measurement properties. Everyone wants some
sort of magic test that allows us to see past lies and errors and divine what
really happened. It doesn't exist. Lets not let our desire for magic
lead us to accept unsupported tools risk decreasing our
accuracy.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007></SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2><SPAN class=679482318-30042007>Mark </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=679482318-30042007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mark Chaffin, Ph.D.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Professor of Pediatrics</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>University of Oklahoma Health Sciences
Center</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>P.O. Box 26901; CSC 225</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Oklahoma City, OK
73190</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>(405) 271-8858</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left>
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