Currently, in the Republic of Belarus there are no requirements for licensing activities in the field of special psychophysiological studies (polygraph tests) or mandatory certification of specialists, in connection with which there are cases of the provision of this service by persons who do not have special knowledge either in the field of psychology or in the field of psychophysiology. As a rule, such «polygraph operators» promise the client one hundred percent reliability of their conclusions, while neglecting almost all of the requirements for conducting a special psychophysiological study, thus breaking human destinies with their incompetence.
The indirect signs of misleading a client by a polygraph examiner can be:
- Refusal of the polygraph examiner to conclude a contract for the provision of services in writing form
In addition to the fact that the polygraph examiner violates the requirements of tax legislation by accepting cash payments for the provision of services without concluding an agreement, he disclaims any responsibility for the quality of the service provided, since it will be extremely difficult for the client to prove that such a service was provided at all.
- The polygraph examiner does not have an office space, properly equipped for the study
Persons carrying out fraudulent activities under the guise of a polygraph test, after receiving cash from the client and carrying out some manipulations with the polygraph, simply disappear, adding the phone number of the deceived client to the black list of their phone book. The polygraph examiner’s lack of an office, properly equipped for conducting a psychophysiological study, may indicate either the beginning of a polygraph examiner’s career, when yesterday’s university graduate does not have the money to rent a room, or the polygraph examiner’s initial neglect of the requirements for arranging an examination room, the implementation of which significantly increases performance and the credibility of the test itself. - Refusal of the polygraph examiner to provide a conclusion in writing or electronical form as a result of his work, a requirement of issuing the conclusion for additional funds
Polygraph examiners, unsure of their competence or their conclusions, prefer either not to issue any conclusion at all, or to issue a minimalistic conclusion on two or three pages, so that their colleagues, if necessary, cannot verify the correctness of the conclusions made. A particular case of such a model of behavior of an insecure polygraph examiner is to provide the client, instead of the conclusion of the polygraph examiner, with a file created and reproduced using special software that the client obviously does not have, or screenshots from fragments of reactograms (polygrams). In fact, this polygraph examiner relieves himself of any responsibility for the quality of the service provided, since the conclusions based on the results of the examination are communicated to the client exclusively verbally, and in case of a conflict situation after the service is provided, the polygraph examiner begins to brazenly claim that the client «misunderstood» his conclusions. - The polygraph examiner does not have a diploma of higher education or a diploma of retraining on the basis of higher education in the field of psychology and psychophysiology
Due to the lack of licensing requirements for activities in the field of conducting special psychophysiological studies (polygraph tests), as well as for training in this area, many organizations and web bloggers have recently appeared offering training courses, including exclusively remotely, by mastering the skills of working on the polygraph. In order to deceive the client and in order to convince them of their competence, «polygraph operators» publish on their websites or show clients various certificates and even letters of appreciation that have nothing to do with documents confirming the fact of receiving education in a special field of knowledge. The absence of a state document on higher education or retraining on the basis of higher education in the field of psychology / psychophysiology at the polygraph examiner indicates that this polygraph examiner does not have proper theoretical and practical training in the field of special psychophysiological research. In a number of cases, scammers' websites list well-known polygraph examiners in Belarus and the Russian Federation who are properly trained in conducting polygraph tests, but in fact completely different people come to the client to provide polygraph examination.
- A promise to draw a conclusion with full certainty (one hundred percent accuracy) based on the results of a polygraph study
On one hand, over the past 50 years in the world, including in the CIS countries, several areas have developed in the form of schools of polygraph examiners with their own approaches and research methods, while representatives of each school consider themselves the most competent in the matters of psychophysiological research. The most extensive study of the reliability of the conclusions of polygraph examiners (an analysis of thousands of both the conclusions of polygraph examiners with reactograms of all tests performed, and court decisions, taking into account the confessions of those involved, appeals and repeated checks of falsely convicted) was carried out in the United States. According to the results of a large-scale meta-analysis of the validity of existing polygraph examination methods conducted by the American polygraph association, the reliability of the results of tests using most common methods is 85-90%, which is consistent with most psychological examination methods. A polygraph examiner who promises more than 90% reliability of his findings as a result of the study of the interviewed person exclusively on a polygraph, misleads his client.
Minimum requirements for a polygraph examiner:
- at least 30 years old (requires life experience);
- having a higher education in the field of psychology is highly desirable (a state-recognised diploma);
- having passed a retraining program on the basis of higher education to conduct special psychophysiological studies (the presence of a state diploma);
- advanced training in the field of special psychophysiological studies at least once every three years (due to the rapid development of methods to counter polygraph examinations).
Minimum requirements for the content of the polygraph examination report (conclusion):
- an indication of the questions that were put to the polygraph examiner for resolution of the special study;
- an indication of higher education and certificates of advanced training of a polygraph examiner in the field of special psychophysiological studies;
- indication of the polygraph model, name and version of the software;
- indication of research methods (names of research and screening tests, the number of presentations of each test);
- questions of all of the presented tests;
- reactograms of tests (at least 3 presentations for one research and 3 presentations for one verification test);
- the name of the method for calculating reactograms;
- reactogram calculation table;
- conclusions on the questions.
The Forensic expert kollegium is the first forensic institution in the Republic of Belarus that provides services for conducting special psychological research using a polygraph, which has successfully passed the certification of the management system for compliance with the requirements of the new version of the state standard STB ISO 9001-2015. Polygraph examinations are conducted by certified forensic experts and polygraph examiners.
You can order a special psychological examination at the Forensic expert kollegium at: Minsk, Zhukovskogo st., 11A, 4th floor
or by phone +375 (17) 317 04 71; +375 (17) 317 04 72; +375 (17) 317 04 73; +375 (17) 317 04 74; +375 (17) 317 04 76; +375 (29) 109 60 11; +375 (29) 397 31 71; +375 (44) 588 60 11.
© Konstantin Dadzkou