Credibility Under Scrutiny

A. C. Applebee and A. D. Masters

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A Critical Criminological Analysis of Behavioural Deception Detection, Trauma Misattribution, and Their Implications for Australian Criminal Justice Policy

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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Criminology

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Declaration of Originality

I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institution. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Theoretical Framework

Methodology

The Empirical Basis of Credibility Assessment

Trauma Response, Neurodiversity, and the Structural Misattribution Mechanism

Comparative Policy Analysis: Reform, Reversal, and Outcomes

Australian Evidence: Existing Programs with Documented Outcomes

Policy Implications

Conclusion

References

What does the peer-reviewed evidence establish about the accuracy of human behavioural deception detection?

To what extent do the behavioural presentations of acute trauma overlap with the cues that credibility assessors interpret as deceptive?

What are the implications of this overlap for justice outcomes, given the documented prevalence of