Understanding the Lie Detection Testing Service and its Applications
If you should happen to utter the word “polygraph” when chatting with your friends or colleagues, the chances are that the mention will conjure up images of FBI interrogations and courtroom dramas. However, while lie detection testing services are widely used within the criminal justice systems of many countries, their potential value is no longer seen as restricted to this type of scenario.
Fans of The Jerry Springer Show, in which men and women often allege that their partner has been cheating, will have seen the polygraph test employed at the request of an accused individual who wishes to demonstrate their innocence. While the spectacle may be entertaining TV, private lie detection testing services are often employed by a partner or spouse who wishes to prove their fidelity.
In practice, there are several other situations in which it can be important to determine the truthfulness of an individual. It is, for example, not uncommon for a job applicant to embellish their CV in an attempt to improve employment prospects. Even among a company’s existing employees, there will often be one or two who are less trustworthy than their colleagues. If company property should be stolen at some stage, professional lie detection testing services can often provide a means to identify the culprit, and so, reduce the risk of any recurrence. Other improprieties, such as fraud may also occur in the workplace and these too can be investigated using this procedure.
The principle behind polygraphic testing is well established and the equipment used has been vastly improved since its invention by a police officer from California, in 1921. So, how does a lie detector work? Today’s sophisticated digital polygraphs are designed to monitor three of the body’s physiological activities. To perform the lie detection testing, the service provider measures blood pressure, respiration rate, and skin conductivity. These parameters are controlled by the autonomic nervous system and all tend to become raised unconsciously in response to the stress experienced when a subject is deliberately lying.
The examination begins with a series of control questions, some of which the subject must answer truthfully while being required to lie in response to some others. Having established these baseline values, further questions directly appropriate to the circumstances of the investigation are then posed to which the subject must answer a simple yes or no.
A word of caution: A lie detection testing service should only be conducted by a trained and certified operator. To ensure that its results are reliable, it is important to perform the test in a quiet and private location, and it should continue for at least 90 minutes.
Many South Africans who have had reason to doubt the honesty of a job applicant, an employee, or a significant other have learned that Nighthawk Polygraph ticks all of these crucial boxes. Under the direction of Fritz Stols, a forensic psychphysiologist with a combined total of 30 years’ experience in the SAPS and private security sector, the company has performed thousands of tests on behalf of businesses and individuals.
Nighthawk Polygraph employs state-of-the-art technology while adhering to the code of conduct and ethical principles of the American Polygraph Association to deliver a professional lie detection testing service you can trust.
