that are far from negligible. Even with training and experience
(plus the most up-to-date equipment) people are typically far
from perfect at catching liars. There is probably a very good reason
for this. Humans have spent many thousands of years learning to
deceive others. It would be naive of us, therefore, to think that lie
detection will ever achieve very high accuracy rates. The 2004 BPS
report said, ‘We must not deceive ourselves into thinking that
there will ever be an error-free way of detecting deception’ (p. 30).
British Psychological Society (2004) A review of the current scientific
status and fields of application of polygraphic deception detection.
Leicester: BPS. Available from http://www.bps.org/publica-
tions; click on ‘Working Party Reports’.
DePaulo, B., Lindsay, J., Malone, B., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton,
K. and Cooper, H. (2003) Cues to deception. Psychological
Bulletin, 129, 74–118.
Granhag, P. A. and Stromwall, L. (2004) The detection of deception
in forensic contexts.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hartwig, M., Granhag, P. A., Stromwall, I. and Andersson, L.
(2004) Suspicious minds: Criminals’ ability to detect decep-
tion. Psychology, Crime and Law, 10, 83–95.
Masip, J., Sporer, S., Garrido, E. and Herrero, C. (2005) The detec-
tion of deception with the reality monitoring approach: A
review of the empirical evidence. Psychology, Crime and Law,
11 , 99–122.
Memon, A., Vrij, A. and Bull, R. (2003) Psychology and law:
Truthfulness, accuracy and credibility, 2nd edn. Chichester:
Wiley.
National Research Council (2003) The polygraph and lie detection.
Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Poly-
graph. Washington, DC: The National Academic Press.
Vrij, A. (2000) Detecting lies and deceit. Chichester: Wiley.
Vrij, A. (2004) Why professionals fail to catch liars and how they
can improve. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 9, 159–81.
86 criminal psychology: a beginner’s guide