Page 341 - Deception at work all chapters EBook

290 Deception at Work

Most of the principles of deception described in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 apply to written lies,
even though the liar has had time to plan every word, to edit and maybe even take legal advice
before committing himself to paper. This Chapter outlines the ways in which lies in writ-
ing can be identified and then resolved in what we will refer to generically as the structured
analysis of stories (SAS).

Structured analysis of stories

ORIGINS AND FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

The origin of SAS can be traced to the mid 1930s and the work of Dr Udo Undeutsch of the
University of Cologne. He developed a methodology called ‘Statement Reality Analysis’ (SRA)
for assessing the credibility of rape victims. For years the work was confined to academic circles
but in the 1980s spread to the USA, Canada and Israel and into the commercial world.

Avinoam Sapir, of the laboratory for Scientific Interrogation (LSI) (www.lsiscan.com), and
Don Rabon (www.donrabon.net), of the North Carolina Justice Academy were among the
prime movers in the promotion of statement analysis, primarily focused in the US criminal
justice areas and on exculpatory lies in single incident cases

Mr Sapir’s work, especially, has triggered others into action and now scores of people are
offering similar techniques. Many are no more than gimmicks which produce sound and
word bites. These undermine the value of statement analysis.

AVINOAM SAPIR AND SCAN

A mathematical equation

Avinoam Sapir’s excellent website at the LSI should be the starting point for anyone interested
in digging deeper into ‘pure’ statement analysis. His approach is called Scientific Content
Analysis (SCAN) and it has become the standard among American law enforcement agencies,
including the FBI.

SCAN AND SAPIR word is used
• The relationship between the different
Mr Sapir’s definition of SCAN is as follows:
‘SCAN looks upon a statement as a words

mathematical equation … We are not The end result of a SCAN analysis is to
interested in the content of the statement, know the background information which
but in the relationship between: generated the subject’s vocabulary or
dictionary (i.e. his linguistic code) … In
• The different links of the statement (i.e. other words we would discover the full
the positioning and connection between story that the subject didn’t want to expose
topics) openly in the content of the story.’

• The subjective meaning the writer
attributes to each word

• The different locations in which a certain