RICO’s Q — On Monday, President Laura Fernández ordered the top officials of police organizations and ministers to take a “lie detector” or polygraph test.
The American Psychological Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and most courts worldwide reject the polygraph because its results are not proof of guilt or innocence. Any student of Criminal Law or Criminology knows this.
Laura is resorting to tactics that have already been scientifically proven to be flawed. This tactic reveals, on the one hand, ignorance and, on the other, opportunism (populismo in Spanish).
What Laura did was propose a measure that is completely ineffective but deceives people unfamiliar with these issues.
Why doesn’t the “lie detector” work?
This is because the instrument measures physiological variables such as heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, etc., which can be affected by stress, anxiety, hypertension, or other medical or psychological conditions.
They can even be induced by the interrogator, or the way the questions are asked can cause a physiological response.
For these reasons, judges in the United States, and many European and Latin American countries, DO NOT admit “lie detector” or polygraph tests as evidence of guilt in a trial.
What Laura demonstrates is a profound ignorance of forensic science, criminalistics, and criminal law.
Laura is truly embarrassing with the nonsense (“tonteras” in Spanish) she has been spouting in less than a month since taking office.
Among the comments on social media are:
“She’s out of line”.
“She makes up all sorts of things!”
“They took the muzzle off the donkey, and she came out with that. They should keep her tied up.”
“Start with her and see if you’re any good.”
“Just random thoughts. She should be proposing a plan for the education crisis, the crisis in healthcare services, the wave of violence, the increase in femicides, among so many other problems that plague us.”
“She’s making a fool of herself, as always.”
“No, it’s neither ridiculous nor ignorant; it’s populism. Analyze it: one week yes, the next no, they come up with some nonsense to create controversy, to keep polarizing the public, to keep fueling the hatred and attachment of their ‘fans’. It’s not nonsense, it’s strategy.”
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