Polygraph profiling and applications

Profiling and Polygraphs

What might explain the popularity of profiling, despite the lack of evidence to support it? What are the major limitations associated with profiling? What are some major limitations in researching the effectiveness of profiling?

Profiling is popular partly because it is a manifestation of natural tendencies to make broad assumptions based on past experiences and partly because it is a function of various personal prejudices (both overt and benign) and biases that are common in society. It also remains popular because it may often produce otherwise valid arrests in the field at the street level of law enforcement. It may be difficult to convince patrol officers that there is little empirical evidence to support profiling simply because that conclusion is often contradicted by their experiences. For example, police officers know that, strictly based on their field experience, that they are much more likely to discover weapons, illicit drugs, and other contraband within a group of youths dressed in oversized baggy jeans hanging low than they are to discover contraband within a group of nuns dressed in habits, notwithstanding that there is no constitutionally permissible basis for targeting the former group over the latter for criminal investigation or detention.

One major limitation associated with profiling is that it violates fundamental constitutional rights against unwarranted searches and seizures or deprivation of liberty. Another is that it provides a means of escaping investigative attention by individuals who purposely mask their criminal behavior behind a veil of apparent compliance with the known expectations of police officers in the field, such as by adopting different types of attire instead of those associated with criminal conduct in the minds of police officers. Finally, researching profiling is difficult because it relies on honest admissions about profiling behavior and prejudicial expectations on the part of police officers when those admissions are directly against their personal and professional interests.

Since the polygraph is inadmissible in many criminal courts, should it be incorporated in employment decisions in regards to government and law enforcement positions? Please provide a rationale for your position.

On one hand, there is a fundamental difference between using polygraphs in criminal cases and employment decisions: namely, the burden of proof in criminal cases is much higher, as it is in relation to civil cases. Therefore, to qualify as an appropriate form of evidence in criminal cases, polygraphs would have to satisfy a much higher standard of reliability and infallibility. Likewise, the magnitude of the consequences are vastly different in criminal cases and the outcome of employment decisions based on evidence that may not be reliable.