Detecting Criminal Intent with the Concealed Information Test

Lie detection procedures are typically aimed at determining whether a suspect is lying about a crime committed in the past. Recent threats of terrorism, however, have shifted attention away from solving old cases to preventing future crimes. In the experiment reported in this paper, we investigate whether a specific lie detection test, the Concealed Information Test, can be used to detect criminal intent. To investigate this issue, we randomly assigned 64 participants to either an informed innocent, an intent or a guilty condition. Participants in the guilty condition actually performed a mock crime whereas participants in the intent condition were stopped when they approached the location where the mock crime was to take place. The results show no difference in detection between the guilty and the intent condition, indicating that a CIT procedure can indeed be used to detect intent. This suggests that the CIT can be used within the recent legal framework that requires procedures allowing for the detection of criminal intent.