Sex Offender Polygraph Results: Examining Outcomes and Utility

• In Event: Risk Assessment: Tools, Models, and Implementation

Abstract

Sex offenders in Colorado are required to undergo a “maintenance polygraph” within six months of release from prison as part of their community treatment plan on parole. The polygraphs are intended to reveal prohibited behaviors among these offenders, and are used by the state as part of a broader sex offender containment strategy. Research on polygraph use generally, and polygraph use in criminal justice specifically, has focused primarily on questions of scientific validity. Sociological perspectives on polygraph use are virtually absent from this literature, but given the implications of polygraph use for issues of social control and the entrenchment of disadvantage, such a perspective can illuminate broader issues in the application of this containment strategy. I analyze polygraph data for a sample of Colorado sex offenders released between 2012 and 2015. Results will identify the types of questions that subjects tend to fail, and further identify subject characteristics that are associated with question failure--with a specific focus on socioeconomics and measures of social control. Sociological and policy implications will be discussed.

Author

• Jeffrey Lin, University of Denver