If you’ve been convicted of an offense and the judge has ordered mandatory therapy as a condition for your release, your therapist may subject you to regular polygraph evaluations. Lie detector tests are designed to assess your compliance with the terms of a therapy program, helping to address the behavioral issues that led to your arrest and conviction.
However, taking polygraph tests as part of court-mandated therapy isn’t about demonstrating that you’ve turned over a new leaf. Reports from these evaluations can provide a reliable metric for tracking your progress with a therapy program. It enables therapists to assess the efficacy of a treatment plan and implement the necessary changes.
This post explores the role of lie detector tests in court-mandated therapy.
What Is Court-Mandated Therapy?
Court-mandated therapy, also known as court-ordered therapy, is a type of treatment that a court directs an offender to undergo as part of their release terms. It’s typically ordered for people with substance abuse, mental health conditions, or behavioral disorders.
Administering lie detector tests during court-mandated therapies can offer invaluable insights into whether a patient is staying on course with their treatment plan. By leveraging findings from these tests, therapies are able to develop the coping mechanisms their patients require to manage aberrant behaviors.
How Effective Is Court-Mandated Therapy?
Various films, such as Adam Sandler’s Anger Management, have brought into focus the critical role of court-mandated therapy in accelerating mental and behavioral healing. Well, this particular comedy went over the top, but you get the picture.
Court-ordered therapy is designed to reform an offender’s behavior. Rather than slapping the individual with a hefty fine or jail term, they’re instead released but directed to enroll in prescribed therapy programs.
However, multiple studies have cast aspersions on the reliability of court-mandated therapies, particularly for adolescent outpatients. It’s against that backdrop that experts now recommend using lie detector tests to augment the effectiveness of these treatments.
Polygraph Testing in Substance Abuse Therapy
Many court-mandated therapies involve released offenders going into mandatory substance addiction treatments.
Lie detector tests enable therapists to gauge the progress of an addict’s treatment and detect relapse signs early enough.
Besides, the findings can help rebuild trust in relationships fractured by substance abuse.
Polygraph Testing in Anger Management
Anger is one of the most destructive emotions.
Therefore, every released offender should be grateful if a court slams them with a mandated therapy. Lie detector tests provide anger management patients with a means to track each milestone along their road to recovery.
Usually, a polygrapher will pose a series of interview questions to the examinee, and each response is used to assess the respondent’s ability to manage or cope with anger triggers.
However, it’s important to proceed cautiously while administering polygraph evaluations in anger management therapies. Like other extreme emotions, anger can activate the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and trigger physiological responses that inexperienced examiners may misconstrue as signs of deception.
Polygraph Testing In Domestic Violence
Going into court-mandated treatment can help address various triggers of domestic violence.
Whether your relationship is threatened by dwindling finances, poor communication, or other family dynamics, you can benefit from these counseling programs to resolve thorny disputes.
Lie detector tests are central to the success of domestic violence counseling. The findings from these exams can validate disclosure statements made by the violent partner, providing a pathway to genuine reconciliation.
Exploring the Polygraph Procedure
Before conducting polygraph tests in court-mandated therapy, adequate preparation is paramount.
While the therapist may conduct this interview with the examinee, the polygraph examiner does the pre-test interview immediately prior to the exam itself (same day).
During such interviews, a would-be examinee will be informed of the forthcoming lie detector test. They’ll also be required to unreservedly consent to being polygraphed, or the test results will be instantly dismissed as invalid. Besides, pre-test interviews enable polygraphers to establish critical baselines against which changes in physiological responses during the in-test period will be measured.
Next comes the in-test phase, which involves administering a set of questions to a patient and carefully analyzing their response.
Finally, a polygrapher will subject the examinee to post-test interviews, during which the examinee can defend their answers. The findings are then shared with the therapists, who use them to customize treatments accordingly.
While there’s no standard rule on how frequently to conduct court-mandated polygraph tests, experts recommend no more than two tests annually.
Accelerating Recovery With Regular Polygraph Tests
Getting sentenced to a court-mandated therapy is a blessing in disguise, especially if a program entails routine polygraph testing.
Consenting to regular lie detector tests can provide valuable insights into the efficacy of a treatment plan. It enables your therapist to tailor a treatment program to your needs, potentially accelerating your recovery.
To maximize the efficiency of polygraph tests in court-mandated therapy, the exams must be reasonably spaced and the examinee sufficiently prepared for each evaluation. Needless to mention, all polygraphs must be undertaken by examiners who graduated from accredited schools.
