Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/761

 The

Green

Bag

Published Monthly at $4.00 per Annum. Single Numbers 50 Cents. Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, S. R. Wrightington, 31 State Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of interest to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities, facetice. and anecdotes. PSYCHOLOGY AND THE "THIRD DEGREE » Professor Munsterberg in the October McClure's (V. xxix, p. 614) publishes another of his suggestive articles on the relation of modern psychology to the ascertainment of truth in courts of law. In previous articles which appeared last spring in the Times Magazine he called attention to modern methods of testing the accuracy of memory In this article he contends that the scientific methods of studying the association of ideas afford a means of eliciting information that a person desires to conceal more effective than the ordinary cross-examination by counsel and far more humane than the " third degree " of the metropolitan police. In some of his previous writings he has shown how persons of weak or defective intellect are frequently driven into untrue confessions by psycho logical effects of the police methods of exam ination of which the police are entirely ignorant. We are all conscious of the repulsion caused by the thought of the application of these methods though most who have had to do with detection of crime are convinced that such methods are necessary and in the long run not unfair to the criminal. We must remember, however, the real criminal is usually of abnormal mental development and pecu liarly likely to be subject to subtle influences with which police are unfamiliar. The method which is here explained seems at first too simple to be uniformly effective. The examiner prepares a list of several hundred words, most of them of common place significance, but some of them re ferring to incidents or scenes supposed to be connected with the event concerning which it is supposed that information is concealed. The suspect is then told that these words will be repeated for the purpose of ascertaining what matters they call to his mind and he will be required in reply to name as rapidly as possible after each word put to him some other

word which occurs to his mind. He, there fore, understands the whole object of the pro cess and is put on his guard. If he has any thing to conceal he will naturally endeavor when the dangerous words are pronounced to name in reply some word having no apparent connection with the information which he knows is desired. If he has nothing to con ceal he will give no thought to the process but will give his replies as they occur to him with uniform rapidity. It is evident, however, that if he gives thought to his answer the mental process must be slightly longer than if he answers without precaution. These differ ences in time may be very minute and not appreciable by the subject himself. They are said to occur with such uniformity, how ever, as to afford a certain test for distinguishing the words which cause embarrassment and by means of delicately adjusted electrical appa ratus the relative time for reply can be accurate ly gauged and recorded. In the course of a long examination, moreover, a real criminal would inevitably find betraying thoughts rushing upon him for expression and a word would slip out which would cause him em barrassment and entirely disarrange the rapidity of his answers. Long experience with many instances has enabled the psy chologist to deduce simple rules of detection from time variations which will put him upon the track of the matters to which the person examined is sensitive, and by repetitions of the words which are found effective a con fession is frequently elicited. It was this system of experiment among many others which was tried by the author upon Orchard during the trial of Haywood last summer con cerning which exaggerated rumors appeared in the press, and the article is especially interesting as recording the effect of such an examination upon so unusual a mental type as this professional criminal. Most of us will be disposed at first to doubt the possibility of uniformly accurate results