Myth of the linguistic lie detector

This paper is the result of investigations into the features of a mythology of police interviewing techniques and its relationship with current law enforcement practices. An investigation of the SCAN (Scientific Content Analysis) technique as promoted on the website of the Laboratory for Scientific Interrogation was initiated in order to discover the way in which texts aimed at law enforcement professionals contribute to or form a part of the network of beliefs, assumptions and understandings which constitute a mythology about police interviewing. This paper suggests that critical discourse analysis is an appropriate approach to the policy issues surrounding police interviewing techniques, as it provides the possibility of exposing the mythology at an institution-wide level.