NCJ Number
120550
Date Published
1989
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This article covers the investigative hypnosis process, its history, its applicability, and legal and political issues.
Abstract
According to pervasive myths, hypnosis is mind control and has truth-detecting or truth-compelling capability, but in fact the hypnotized subject retains volitional control. The investigative hypnosis process is divided into seven phases: 1) a preliminary review of basic crime information; 2) the preinduction phase used to set up the instruments of the session and build rapport with the subject; 3) the induction phase in which hypnosis begins; 4) the deepening phase in which the subject is brought to an optimal level of comfort and functioning; 5) information elicitation in which crime scene and time parameters are established for recall; 6) the posthypnotic suggestions phase which increases the possibility of later recall; and 7) the dehypnotization phase. A 1987 study of seven solved cases and nine subjects compared standard and hypnosis interviews of each subject and found an average 177 percent increase in information in the hypnosis interviews. Three crime cases illustrate how victims questioned under hypnosis recalled information that was otherwise unobtainable and led to the identification, apprehension, and conviction of the criminals. 166 references.