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CQT

Definition

Control Question Test (Reid/Keeler technique): compares physiological response to relevant questions with response to control (probable-lie) questions; the dominant US polygraph format.

Related terms

BEOS
Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature profiling, developed by Champadi Raman Mukundan and validated 2003 at NIMHANS Bangalore; uses 32-channel EEG to classify probes...
Criminal Profiling
The inference of an unknown offender's likely characteristics from crime scene behaviour, victimology, and case details. Also called offender profiling, criminal investigative...
FBI BAU
Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI Academy, Quantico, evolved from the Behavioral Science Unit set up by Howard Teten and Pat Mullany...
GKT / CIT
Guilty Knowledge Test, also called Concealed Information Test (Lykken, 1959): tests whether the subject recognises crime-specific details only the perpetrator would know;...
Modus Operandi
How the offender commits the crime: the functional behaviour needed to complete it; evolves with experience and feedback.
Narco-Analysis
A technique in which a subject is administered a barbiturate or benzodiazepine drug (commonly sodium pentothal or midazolam) to induce a hypnotic...
Organised vs Disorganised
The BSU dichotomy proposed by Ressler and Douglas, classifying offenders by scene presentation. Organised scenes show planning; disorganised scenes show chaos. The...
P300
Event-related brain potential occurring about 300 ms after a meaningful stimulus; Lawrence Farwell's 'Brain Fingerprinting' uses P300 amplitude to flag concealed recognition...
Polygraph
An instrument that simultaneously records multiple physiological channels including blood pressure, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, and sometimes heart rate while the...
Signature
Psychologically expressive behaviours that go beyond what's needed to complete the offence: posing the body, ritual acts, taking trophies, leaving messages. Signature...
Sodium Pentothal
Sodium thiopental, an ultra-short-acting barbiturate; intravenous infusion at a slow drip lowers cortical inhibition and is the standard agent for narco-analysis.

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