Use of the Polygraph in Combating Crime

Abstract

The current legal provisions directing the struggle against organized crime, the low technical level of investigative equipment, the investigators' extremely heavy work load, and the "procedural routines" necessary in gathering evidence obstruct any improvement in the environment that gives rise to crime. This requires the use of nontraditional (most often, nonprocedural) methods of criminal investigation. Thus there is an urgent need to update the guidelines that govern the use of such methods by law-enforcement agencies. In particular, a number of laws have been enacted allowing the admissibility as evidence of the products not only of video recordings and still and motion-picture cameras, but of other technical tools as well.