Abstract
Criminals often falsify their identities intentionally in order to deter police investigations. In this paper we focus on uncovering patterns of criminal identity deception observed through a case study performed at a local law enforcement agency. We define criminal identity deception based on an understanding of the various theories of deception. We interview a police detective expert and discuss the characteristics of criminal identity deception. A taxonomy for criminal identity deception was built to represent the different patterns that were identified in the case study. We also discuss methods currently employed by law enforcement agencies to detect deception. Police database systems contain little information that can help reveal deceptive identities. Thus, in order to identify deception, police officers rely mainly on investigation. Current methods for detecting deceptive criminal identities are neither effective nor efficient. Therefore we propose an automated solution to help solve this problem.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aubry, A. S. Jr. and R. R. Caputo. (1980). Criminal Interrogation, 3rd Ed., Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Buller, D. B. and J. K. Burgoon. (1996). “Interpersonal Deception Theory.” Communication Theory 6, 203–242.
Buller, D. B., and J. K. Burgoon. (1998). “Emotional Expression in the Deception Process,” in P. A. Andersen and L. K. Guerrero (eds.), Handbook of Communication and Emotion. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 381–402.
Burgoon, J. K., D. B. Buller, L. K. Guerrero, W. Afifi, and C. Feldman. (1996). “Interpersonal Deception: XII. Information Management Dimensions Underlying Deceptive and Truthful Messages,” Communication Monographs 63, 50–69.
City of Tucson, Department of Transportation (2001). “Ethnic Groups in the City of Tucson,” http://dot.ci.tucson.az.us/ttdot/dsisurvey/sld011.htm.
Clarke, R. (1994). “Human Identification in Information Systems: Management Challenges and Public Policy Issues,” Information Technology & People 7 (4), 6–37.
CNN, “Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Lie Detectors,” http://www.cnn.com/US/9711/03/scotus.polygraph/ index.html.
DePaulo, B. M. and R. L. Pfeifei. (1986). “On-the-job Experience and Skill at Detecting Deception,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 16, 249–267.
Donath, J. S. (1988). “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community,” Communities in Cyberspace. Routledge.
Ekman, P. (1985). Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in The Marketplace, Politics and Marriage. New York: W. W. Norton.
Ekman, P. (2001). Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in The Marketplace, Politics and Marriage, 3rd Ed., New York: W. W. Norton.
Ekman, P. and M. O'Sullivan. (1991). “Who Can Catch a Liar?” American Psychologist 46 (9), 913–920.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (2001). “September 11 Hijackers: Names and Photographs on FBI.GOV.” U.S.
Department of Justice, Washington D. C., http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/092701hjpic.htm.
Hample, D. (1980). “Purposes and Effects of Lying,” Southern Speech Communication Journal 46, 33–47.
Hauck, R.V., H. Atabakhsh, P. Ongvasith, H. Gupta, and H. Chen. (2002). “Using COPLINK to Analyze Criminal-Justice Data,” IEEE Computer, March 2002.
Knapp, M. L. and M. E. Comadena. (1979). “Telling It Like It Isn't: A Review of Theory and Research on Deceptive Communication,” Human Communication Research 5, 270–285.
Kohnken, G. (1987). “Training Police Officers to Detect Deceptive Eyewitness Statements: Does it work?” Social Behavior 2, 1–17.
Krauss, R. M. (1981). “Impression Formation, Impression Management, and Nonverbal Behaviors,” in E. T. Higgins, C. P. Herman, and M. P. Zanna (eds.), Social Cognition: The Ontario Symposium, Vol. 1. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 323–341.
Kraut, R. E. and D. Poe. (1980). “On the Line: The Deception Judgments of Customs Inspectors and Laymen,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39, 784–798.
Levenshtein, V. L. (1966). “Binary Codes Capable of Correcting Deletions, Insertions, and Reversals,” Soviet Physics Doklady 10, 707–710.
Mitchell, R. W. (1966). “A Framework for Discussing Deception,” in R. W. Mitchell and N. S. Mogdil (eds.), Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit. Albany: State University of New York Press, 3–4.
Public Law. “Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act.” As amended by Public Law 105-318, 112 Stat. 3007 (Oct. 30, 1998) http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/itada/itadact.htm#003.
Navarro, G. (2001). “A Guided Tour to Approximate String Matching,” ACM Computing Surveys 33 (1), 31–88.
Vrij, A. (2000). Detecting Lies and Deceit: The Psychology of Lying and The Implication for Professional Practice. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Vrij, A. and F. W. Winkel. (1993). “Objective and Subjective Indicators of Deception,” in N. K. Clark and G. M. Stephenson (eds.), Children, Evidence, and Procedure. Leicester, UK: The British Psychological Society.
Wang, G., H. Chen, and H. Atabakhsh (2003). “Automatically Detecting Deceptive Criminal Identities,” Communications of the ACM (to appear).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, G., Chen, H. & Atabakhsh, H. Criminal Identity Deception and Deception Detection in Law Enforcement. Group Decision and Negotiation 13, 111–127 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:GRUP.0000021838.66662.0c
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:GRUP.0000021838.66662.0c