Use of ‘junk science’ lie detector tests for sex offenders triples in three years

The number of lie detector tests being used on sex offenders in England and Wales has almost tripled in the last three years, leading to fears that victims’ safety is being put at risk. Labour MP Kate Osborne, who sat on the Women and Equalities Committee until the election, said the use of lie detectors must not be “normalised”, warning they can enable sex offenders to manipulate the system. She added: “We have a very contested scientific method incorporated in a really serious context of sexual violence and domestic abuse and now other offending like terrorism.” Kyriakos Kotsoglou, an associate professor at Northumbria University, who has also done research into lie detectors, said: “We predicted back in 2020 the proliferation of the polygraph and that we were on a slippery slope with regards to its usage because the probation service treats the polygraph as a silver bullet.” A government fact sheet about lie detector usage on domestic abusers states: “Information gathered from a polygraph examination may also be shared with the police who are able to conduct further investigations that may or may not result in charges being made.” Ms Osborne said she would ask the new justice secretary and the minister for women and equalities to look urgently “at the use of mandatory polygraph exams on high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators started by the last government”. open image in gallery Kate Osborne is warning that the unreliability of lie detector tests is putting women at risk Hannah Couchman, senior lawyer at legal charity Rights of Women, called for the government to stop using lie detector tests, warning they “lack an evidential basis and exacerbate discriminatory approaches”.