HomeAccording to the Telegraph.co.uk, police in the UK are being “encouraged” to participate in a hypnosis course that will teach, among other things, an introduction to electroencephalograms (EEGs).
EEG is the recording of electrical activity in the brain gathered by placing sensors on the scalp which monitor ‘neuron activity’ – which cops believe can help ‘encourage’ suspects and witnesses to tell the truth.
How can this be legal? Is this different than a lie detector test?
Apparently proponents feel this is the next “logical step” when standard methods of interrogation have failed.
“Putting people in a receptive brainwave state makes it likelier that the truth would come out.
“Forensic hypnosis is a scientific approach as helmets monitor brain activity and anyone who is lying would have wide-awake brainwave patterns.
“Forensic hypnosis does not prove guilt but it can give new lines of enquiry when traditional methods have failed.
How can information garnered in this way be credible or permissible for presentation to the court? If someone is in a hypnotized state, they are by definition easily led. Consider all the reports of inaccurate and completely fabricated “recovered memories”. Is there any way to prove the results gathered via hypnotic interrogation are factual?
When interviewing suspected child abuse victims, we were required to be extraordinarily careful not to ask any leading questions whatsoever as doing so could result in the children being guided to provide inaccurate information. Wouldn’t this be the same sort of case?
Perhaps the trial laws in the UK are vastly different from the US. I can’t see use of this technique or information garnered from it ever standing up in a US court.
Your thoughts?