NCJ Number
221982
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2008 Pages: 27-38
Date Published
February 2008
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined the verbal and nonverbal behaviors of criminal offenders and nonoffenders in their reporting of truthful and deceptive accounts of emotional autobiographical events.
Abstract
Generally, offenders and nonoffenders showed similar patterns of deceptive behavior. Both groups provided fewer details in their deceptive accounts than in their honest accounts. Deceptive accounts for both groups involved more descriptive language, albeit without more detail, and used more behaviors intended to indicate sincerity and honesty. In the latter regard, offenders smiled less and showed an increase in self-controlling behaviors when lying. The authors theorize that offenders may be more practiced in deception, including being aware that uncomfortable and disarming smiling and laughing are negatively related to perceived credibility. Offenders may also be familiar with ways to distract listeners from the content and consistency of their verbal content. Offenders (n=27) and university students (n=38) provided videotaped accounts of 4 autobiographic emotional events: 2 honest accounts and 2 fabricated accounts. Patterns of behavior, both verbal and nonverbal, were coded for the two groups. The variables measured were head movements, smiles, illustrators, self-manipulations, filled pauses, pauses, self-references, and speech rate. 2 tables and 38 references