(Law, Science and Society) 1st Edition
by Andrew Balmer (Author)
This book develops a sociological
account of lie detection practices and uses this to think about lying
more generally. Bringing together insights from sociology, social
history, socio-legal studies and science and technology studies (STS),
it explores how torture and technology have been used to try to discern
the truth. It examines a variety of socio-legal practices, including
trial by ordeal in Europe, the American criminal jury trial, police
interrogations using the polygraph machine, and the post-conviction
management of sex offenders in the USA and the UK. Moving across these
different contexts, it articulates how uncertainties in the use of lie
detection technologies are managed, and the complex roles they play in
legal spaces. Alongside this story, the book surveys some of the
different ways in which lying is understood in philosophy, law and
social order. Lie Detection and the Law will be of interest to
STS researchers, socio-legal scholars, criminologists and sociologists,
as well as others working at the intersections of law and science.
