Statement analysis

Statement analysis, also called "statement validity assessment", "content analysis", "investigative discourse analysis", and "scientific content analysis" is a technique proponents claim can be used to detect concealed information, missing information, and whether the information that person has provided is true or false.

Statement analysis involves an investigator searching for linguistic cues and gaps in a subject's testimony or preliminary statements and using follow-up questions to uncover discrepancies. Creator of Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) Avinoam Sapir gives the example of someone saying, "I counted the money, put the bag on the counter, and proceeded to go home." Sapir says the statement was literally true: "He counted the money (when you steal you want to know how much you are stealing), and then the subject put the bag on the counter. The subject didn't say that he put the money back in the bag after counting it, because he didn't; he left the empty bag on the counter and walked away with the money." Sapir says that a fundamental principle of statement analysis is that "denying guilt is not the same as denying the act. When one says "I am not guilty" or "I am innocent," they are not denying the act; they are only denying guilt." Sapir claims that it is almost impossible for a guilty person to say "I didn't do it." He asserts that guilty people tend to speak in even greater circumlocutions by saying things like "I had nothing to do with it" or "I am not involved in that."

Proponents say statement analysis has proven highly effective as a police interrogation technique, however critics argue that it encourages investigators to prejudge a suspect as deceptive and affirm a presumption of guilt before the interrogation process even begins. Statement analysis in general has been criticized as "theoretically vague" with little or no empirical evidence in its favor, and SCAN in particular has been characterized as "junk science" with the Skeptic's Dictionary and Skeptical Inquirer magazine classifying it as a form of pseudoscience.

See also

• Body language
• Nonverbal communication
• Voice stress analysis
• Discourse analysis