QUEST REVIEW CENTER
1550 Espana Blvd. Cor. Lacson Ave., Sampaloc, Manila
NOTES ON CRIMINALISTICS
POLYGRAPHY
Polygraphy – is scientific methods of detecting deception done with the aid of a polygraph instrument.
Polygraph = (derived from the Greek words Poly) = many or several and Graph = (writing chart) is a scientific instrument
capable of recording simultaneously changes in blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration and skin resistance as indicative of
emotional disturbance especially of a lying subject when being questioned.
Thomas Jefferson = firs person known who used the term Polygraph to described one of his inventions
Definition of terms
1. Admission = is a statement of facts, partial acknowledgement of guilt and usually given with some justification or
exemplification in admitting.
2. Confession = direct acknowledgement of guilt or a statement of guilt.
3. Deception = is the act of deceiving or misleading usually accompanied by lying.
4. Diastolic blood pressure = refers to the downward blood pressure representing the low pressure to the closing of the
valves and heart relaxed.
5. Dicrotic notch = refers to the short horizontal notch in a cardio-tracing located at the middle of the diastolic stem.
6. Electrodermal response = it refers to human body phenomenon in which the skin changes resistance electrically upon
the application of certain external stimuli. Also referred to a Psycho galvanic skin reflex or galvanic skin response.
7. Emotion = it refers to an emotional response to specific danger that appears to be beyond a persons defensive power.
8. Environment = is the sum total of the dissimulation that a person acquired from the time he was conceived and his
exposure to his surroundings.
9. Heredity = is the transmission of physical and mental traits of the parents to their offspring through the genes.
10. Interview = simple questioning of one who is willing and cooperative.
11. Interrogation = forceful questioning of a person who is reluctant to divulge information.
12. Lying = is the act of uttering or conveying falsehood or creating a false or misleading impression with the intention of
affecting wrongfully.
13. Normal response = refers to any activity or inhibition of a previous activity of an organism or part of the organism
resulting from stimulation.
14. Ordeal = refers to the oldest form of crime detection done by subjecting a subject to an obstacle or trial and
sometimes even involving third degree.
15. Specific response = refers to the response given by the subject which considered a deviation from the normal tracing
or norms of the subject.
16. Stimulus = refers to any force or motion coming from the environment and which reach an organism has the tendency
to arouse.
17. Systolic Blood pressure = the upward blood pressure as the apex of the curve caused by the contraction of the heart,
valves are open and blood is rushing into the arteries.
Ayur Vida = a hindu book of science and health around 500B.C. Considered as an earliest known reference to a method
of detecting deception.
EARLY METHODS OF DETECTING DECEPTION
1. Trial by Combat = a method to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in
dispute fought in single combat.
2. Trial by Ordeal = a judicial practiced by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them
to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience or in the present term would mean an employment of “3rd degree”. The
word “ordeal” was derived from the Medieval Latin word “Dei Indicum” which means “a miraculous decision”.
TYPES OF ORDEAL
1. Ordeal of Heat and Fire = in this test the suspect walked a certain distance, usually nine feet, over red-hot
plowshares or holding a red-hot iron.
2. Ordeal of Hot Water = this test requires that the water had to be boiled, and the depth from which the stone had to be
retrieved was up to the wrist for one accusation, and up to the elbow for three or more accusations.
3. Ordeal of Boiling Oil = this ordeal was practiced in villages of India and certain parts of West Africa.
4. Red Hot Iron Ordeal = the accused will be required to touch his tongue to an extremely hot metal nine (9) times
(unless burned sooner), Once his tongue is burned, he will be adjudged guilty. In some country instead of hot iron, they
used a hot needle to tease the lips and once the lips bleed it is an indication of guilt.
5. Ordeal of Cold Water = this ordeal has a precedent in the Code of Ur-Nammu and the Code of Hammurabi under
which a man accused of sorcery was to be submerged in a stream and acquitted if he survived.
= in 16th and 17th centuries, ordeal by water was associated with the witch-hunts. Floating is an indication of
witchcraft.
6. Ordeal of Rice Chewing = a method of detecting deception whereby an accused will be required to take rice (to
clergy bread or cheese).If the accused failed to swallow even a single grain of concentrated rice he/she will be adjudged
, 12. The “Hereditary Sieve” = Dr. Hans Gross mentioned this Ordeal in his famous book on Criminal Investigation in
which beans were thrown into a sieve as the name of each suspect was called. The deception criteria were described as
follows--- “If the bean jumps out of the sieve, the owner of the name pronounced is innocent, if the bean remains in the
sieve, the person named is the thief.
IMPORTANT PERSONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLYGRAPH
Daniel Defoe = wrote an essay entitled, “An Effectual Scheme for the Preventing of Street Robberies and Suppressing all
other Disorders of the Night”
Angelo Mosso = In 1878, science came to the aid of the truth seeker through the research of an Italian psychologist
Angelo Mosso. He made used of an instrument called plethysmograph in his research on emotion and fear and its
influence on the heart and respiration.
= developed a scientific cradle
Cesare Lombroso = In 1895, Cesare Lombroso, an Italian Criminologist and tutor of Angelo Mosso, published the
second edition of his book entitled “L’Homme Criminel” which he relates the used of hydrosphygmograph during
interrogation of suspects. He called it blood pressure pulse test.
= he is considered as the first person to conceive the idea of lie detection and the first to apply the technique in
actual criminal suspects
Francis Galton = in 1879, introduced the Word Association Test using series of irrelevant questions and relevant
question separated in time.
B. Sticker = believed that the origin of the galvanic skin phenomenon was under the influence of the exciting mental
impressions and that the will has no effect upon it.
= he made the earliest application of psychogalvanometer to forensic problems.
Sir James Mackenzie = an English clinician and cardiologist, constructed the Clinical Polygraph in 1892, an instrument
to be used for medical examinations with the capability to simultaneously record undulated line tracings of the vascular
pulses (radial, venous and arterial), by way of a stylus onto a revolving drum of smoked paper.
In 1906, Sir James Mackenzie refined his clinical polygraph of 1892 when he devised the Clinical Ink Polygraph with the
help of Lancashire watchmaker, Sebastian Shaw. This instrument used a clockwork mechanism for the paper-rolling and
time-marker movements and it produced ink recordings of physiological functions that were easier to acquire and to
interpret.
S. Veraguth = he is said to be the first person to use the term Psychogalvanic Reflex. Veraguth was the first scientist to
use the word association test with galvanometer.
= in 1907, he described his observation on galvanic phenomena and emotions that there was an ascending
galvanometer curve during the presentation of relevant stimuli versus the rest curve on non-crucial stimuli.
Vittorio Benussi = in March 1913, he presented a paper before the second meeting of the Italian Society for Psychology
in Rome where he described how he record the subject’s breathing patter using a Marey Pneumograph which he noted
the changes in inspiration-expiration ratio during deception.
= he also included recording of heart rate and blood pressure curve in detection of deception and probably the
first person to record more than one physiological response.
Dr. William M. Marston = in 1915 was credited as the creator of the systolic blood-pressure test used in an attempt to
detect deception during questioning, and using a standard blood pressure cuff and stethescope, requiring repeated
inflation of the pressure cuff to obtain readings at intervals during examination. This was called Discontinuous Technique.
Harold Burtt = In 1918, Burtt suggested that the changes in respiration were an indication of deception.
= He was able to determine that the changes in respiration were of less value in the detection of deception than
the changes in blood pressure
John A. Larson = encouraged by August Vollmer of the Berkeley Police Department to conduct a research on deception.
= Cardio-Pneumo Psychogram was Larson’s first instrument which was borrowed from Dr. Robert Jessel and was
invented by Earl Bryant
= in 1921, Earl Bryant made an instrument for Larson in which he used a breadboard as a base and from that it
became in the industry as Breadboard Polygraph – capable of recording continually and simultaneously the respiration
and cardiovascular activities.
= today he is known as the Father of Scientific Lie Detection and at the same time the Father of Polygraph
Leonarde Keeler = in 1926, he made a modification of Larson’s instrument. He developed that metal bellows and
kymograph that pulled a chart paper at a constant speed under recording pens from a roll of chart located inside the
instrument.
= in 1938, 1938, Keeler included the Psychogalvanometer (PGR), a third measuring component of his
instrument which was also known as Galvanic Skin Reflex (GSR) invented by Italian Physiologist Galvani in 1791.
= credited as the creator on Relevant-Irrelevant Technique.
= today Keeler is known as the Father of Modern Polygraphy.
1550 Espana Blvd. Cor. Lacson Ave., Sampaloc, Manila
NOTES ON CRIMINALISTICS
POLYGRAPHY
Polygraphy – is scientific methods of detecting deception done with the aid of a polygraph instrument.
Polygraph = (derived from the Greek words Poly) = many or several and Graph = (writing chart) is a scientific instrument
capable of recording simultaneously changes in blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration and skin resistance as indicative of
emotional disturbance especially of a lying subject when being questioned.
Thomas Jefferson = firs person known who used the term Polygraph to described one of his inventions
Definition of terms
1. Admission = is a statement of facts, partial acknowledgement of guilt and usually given with some justification or
exemplification in admitting.
2. Confession = direct acknowledgement of guilt or a statement of guilt.
3. Deception = is the act of deceiving or misleading usually accompanied by lying.
4. Diastolic blood pressure = refers to the downward blood pressure representing the low pressure to the closing of the
valves and heart relaxed.
5. Dicrotic notch = refers to the short horizontal notch in a cardio-tracing located at the middle of the diastolic stem.
6. Electrodermal response = it refers to human body phenomenon in which the skin changes resistance electrically upon
the application of certain external stimuli. Also referred to a Psycho galvanic skin reflex or galvanic skin response.
7. Emotion = it refers to an emotional response to specific danger that appears to be beyond a persons defensive power.
8. Environment = is the sum total of the dissimulation that a person acquired from the time he was conceived and his
exposure to his surroundings.
9. Heredity = is the transmission of physical and mental traits of the parents to their offspring through the genes.
10. Interview = simple questioning of one who is willing and cooperative.
11. Interrogation = forceful questioning of a person who is reluctant to divulge information.
12. Lying = is the act of uttering or conveying falsehood or creating a false or misleading impression with the intention of
affecting wrongfully.
13. Normal response = refers to any activity or inhibition of a previous activity of an organism or part of the organism
resulting from stimulation.
14. Ordeal = refers to the oldest form of crime detection done by subjecting a subject to an obstacle or trial and
sometimes even involving third degree.
15. Specific response = refers to the response given by the subject which considered a deviation from the normal tracing
or norms of the subject.
16. Stimulus = refers to any force or motion coming from the environment and which reach an organism has the tendency
to arouse.
17. Systolic Blood pressure = the upward blood pressure as the apex of the curve caused by the contraction of the heart,
valves are open and blood is rushing into the arteries.
Ayur Vida = a hindu book of science and health around 500B.C. Considered as an earliest known reference to a method
of detecting deception.
EARLY METHODS OF DETECTING DECEPTION
1. Trial by Combat = a method to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in
dispute fought in single combat.
2. Trial by Ordeal = a judicial practiced by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them
to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience or in the present term would mean an employment of “3rd degree”. The
word “ordeal” was derived from the Medieval Latin word “Dei Indicum” which means “a miraculous decision”.
TYPES OF ORDEAL
1. Ordeal of Heat and Fire = in this test the suspect walked a certain distance, usually nine feet, over red-hot
plowshares or holding a red-hot iron.
2. Ordeal of Hot Water = this test requires that the water had to be boiled, and the depth from which the stone had to be
retrieved was up to the wrist for one accusation, and up to the elbow for three or more accusations.
3. Ordeal of Boiling Oil = this ordeal was practiced in villages of India and certain parts of West Africa.
4. Red Hot Iron Ordeal = the accused will be required to touch his tongue to an extremely hot metal nine (9) times
(unless burned sooner), Once his tongue is burned, he will be adjudged guilty. In some country instead of hot iron, they
used a hot needle to tease the lips and once the lips bleed it is an indication of guilt.
5. Ordeal of Cold Water = this ordeal has a precedent in the Code of Ur-Nammu and the Code of Hammurabi under
which a man accused of sorcery was to be submerged in a stream and acquitted if he survived.
= in 16th and 17th centuries, ordeal by water was associated with the witch-hunts. Floating is an indication of
witchcraft.
6. Ordeal of Rice Chewing = a method of detecting deception whereby an accused will be required to take rice (to
clergy bread or cheese).If the accused failed to swallow even a single grain of concentrated rice he/she will be adjudged
, 12. The “Hereditary Sieve” = Dr. Hans Gross mentioned this Ordeal in his famous book on Criminal Investigation in
which beans were thrown into a sieve as the name of each suspect was called. The deception criteria were described as
follows--- “If the bean jumps out of the sieve, the owner of the name pronounced is innocent, if the bean remains in the
sieve, the person named is the thief.
IMPORTANT PERSONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLYGRAPH
Daniel Defoe = wrote an essay entitled, “An Effectual Scheme for the Preventing of Street Robberies and Suppressing all
other Disorders of the Night”
Angelo Mosso = In 1878, science came to the aid of the truth seeker through the research of an Italian psychologist
Angelo Mosso. He made used of an instrument called plethysmograph in his research on emotion and fear and its
influence on the heart and respiration.
= developed a scientific cradle
Cesare Lombroso = In 1895, Cesare Lombroso, an Italian Criminologist and tutor of Angelo Mosso, published the
second edition of his book entitled “L’Homme Criminel” which he relates the used of hydrosphygmograph during
interrogation of suspects. He called it blood pressure pulse test.
= he is considered as the first person to conceive the idea of lie detection and the first to apply the technique in
actual criminal suspects
Francis Galton = in 1879, introduced the Word Association Test using series of irrelevant questions and relevant
question separated in time.
B. Sticker = believed that the origin of the galvanic skin phenomenon was under the influence of the exciting mental
impressions and that the will has no effect upon it.
= he made the earliest application of psychogalvanometer to forensic problems.
Sir James Mackenzie = an English clinician and cardiologist, constructed the Clinical Polygraph in 1892, an instrument
to be used for medical examinations with the capability to simultaneously record undulated line tracings of the vascular
pulses (radial, venous and arterial), by way of a stylus onto a revolving drum of smoked paper.
In 1906, Sir James Mackenzie refined his clinical polygraph of 1892 when he devised the Clinical Ink Polygraph with the
help of Lancashire watchmaker, Sebastian Shaw. This instrument used a clockwork mechanism for the paper-rolling and
time-marker movements and it produced ink recordings of physiological functions that were easier to acquire and to
interpret.
S. Veraguth = he is said to be the first person to use the term Psychogalvanic Reflex. Veraguth was the first scientist to
use the word association test with galvanometer.
= in 1907, he described his observation on galvanic phenomena and emotions that there was an ascending
galvanometer curve during the presentation of relevant stimuli versus the rest curve on non-crucial stimuli.
Vittorio Benussi = in March 1913, he presented a paper before the second meeting of the Italian Society for Psychology
in Rome where he described how he record the subject’s breathing patter using a Marey Pneumograph which he noted
the changes in inspiration-expiration ratio during deception.
= he also included recording of heart rate and blood pressure curve in detection of deception and probably the
first person to record more than one physiological response.
Dr. William M. Marston = in 1915 was credited as the creator of the systolic blood-pressure test used in an attempt to
detect deception during questioning, and using a standard blood pressure cuff and stethescope, requiring repeated
inflation of the pressure cuff to obtain readings at intervals during examination. This was called Discontinuous Technique.
Harold Burtt = In 1918, Burtt suggested that the changes in respiration were an indication of deception.
= He was able to determine that the changes in respiration were of less value in the detection of deception than
the changes in blood pressure
John A. Larson = encouraged by August Vollmer of the Berkeley Police Department to conduct a research on deception.
= Cardio-Pneumo Psychogram was Larson’s first instrument which was borrowed from Dr. Robert Jessel and was
invented by Earl Bryant
= in 1921, Earl Bryant made an instrument for Larson in which he used a breadboard as a base and from that it
became in the industry as Breadboard Polygraph – capable of recording continually and simultaneously the respiration
and cardiovascular activities.
= today he is known as the Father of Scientific Lie Detection and at the same time the Father of Polygraph
Leonarde Keeler = in 1926, he made a modification of Larson’s instrument. He developed that metal bellows and
kymograph that pulled a chart paper at a constant speed under recording pens from a roll of chart located inside the
instrument.
= in 1938, 1938, Keeler included the Psychogalvanometer (PGR), a third measuring component of his
instrument which was also known as Galvanic Skin Reflex (GSR) invented by Italian Physiologist Galvani in 1791.
= credited as the creator on Relevant-Irrelevant Technique.
= today Keeler is known as the Father of Modern Polygraphy.
