Hypnosis in Investigation
Before discussing hypnosis in investigation, it is important to understand what the term hypnosis means. American Psychological Association (1994) defines hypnosis as "an interaction between one person, the 'hypnotist', and another person or people, the 'subject' or 'subjects'." In the process the subjects' perceptions, feelings, thinking, and behavior are influenced by the hypnotist, this is done by asking the subject to concentrate on ideas and images that may induce the intended effects. The hypnotist will use 'suggestions' to bring out these effects, the difference between these 'suggestions' and instructions used daily is that the success is measured by a state involuntariness or effortlessness by the subject.
Hypnosis has been applied in various fields including crime investigations, in which case it is referred to as forensic hypnosis. The main aim of forensic hypnosis is to bring into memory of a witness events or details of things that they may have forgotten or repressed. It is the nature of human beings to forget less important details of things in our environment, even important things are sometimes forgotten especially when they tend to disturb or traumatize the person. However, the general belief is that almost everything a person sees, hears, and experiences are hidden somewhere behind the mind, these can be retrieved...
The very first intention of hypnosis is to increase correct memory, however, this has been associated with very significant rise in incorrect memory, and that is to say the accuracy of recall declines (Lynn and Sherman, 2000). One way of evoking memory is by availing visual memories from the past and heightening the ability fantasize, when the subject is in such a state there is a tendency of accepting events suggested by the hypnotist even if they never occurred. This is especially possible when the reality is persistently distorted. The decline in accuracy may not be detected easily since it is accompanied by finer details. Whenever a person is giving vague details about an event then his memory will be doubted, however, when the details are fine then people tend to believe the information is accurate. Apparently hypnotized individuals can recall events with perfect detail and verisimilitude, the uncertain thing is that this detailed recall can be a result of confabulation, simply referred to as memory distortion. In short, hypnosis makes individuals not to differentiate between what they think happened and what actually happened. This problem can be reduced by making…
