A polygraph test provides useful information in many scenarios and can be a crucial component of a criminal investigation, even a required step for security screenings. No matter the purpose, daily practitioners must embrace a more personalized approach to testing to achieve the most credible results.
Author Tuvya T. Amsel, PhD, has conducted tens of thousands of interviews and tests while working with law enforcement agencies and both small businesses and megacorporations across the globe, providing him with several decades' worth of knowledge. In this invaluable handbook, he explains how to deal with the practical issues and problems that polygraph examiners encounter on a regular basis and offers solutions to each that promote assessment accuracy. Topics covered range from resolving chart anomalies and contradictory responses to conducting confirmatory testing. He addresses contaminating factors, procedures for testing foreigners, and best practices for examiners traveling abroad to perform assessments.
Aside from possessing basic procedural and statistical knowledge, the best examiners must be prepared to deal with unique situations-in the end, the tests are conducted on human beings who have a great deal at stake. Approaching each as an individual with a custom-designed test will ensure more accurate results-and produce effective outcomes.
About the Author: Tuvya T. Amsel, PhD, author of Criminal Interview and Interrogation as well as The Truth about Lies, has also written numerous articles on polygraph testing and is a regular contributor to American and European polygraph magazines and security quarterlies. He is routinely appointed as an expert witness by the courts.
With a background in law and holding degrees in criminology, Amsel has interviewed more than thirty-five thousand individuals in the course of criminal investigations, security screenings, polygraph tests, and integrity projects during his forty-five-year career. He has worked with law-enforcement agencies, small businesses, and large corporations in locations throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
For several decades, Amsel has presented educational seminars and lectures to law-enforcement groups, intelligence agencies, and corporate security departments, writing numerous manuals for these audiences. He recently presented a TED Talk for nonprofessional listeners.
