‘Victims feel like they’re not believed’: Lawmaker pushes to shield sexual assault victims from polygraph tests

Polygraph test (KUTV).

Polygraph test (KUTV).

A bill to restrict the use of polygraph tests on sexual assault victims in the state of Utah could become law in January.

Democratic Rep. Angela Romero, the sponsor of the bill HB 327, said the tests are unreliable.

Polygraph exams or “lie detector tests,” which measure heart rate, blood volume, and breathing rates, are not generally admissible in the court system due to the unreliability of the body’s responses, particularly when used on a victim.

“Polygraph tests can sometimes be misunderstood and be considered like a lie-detector test, and victims feel like they’re not believed,” Romero told The Salt Lake Tribune, which investigated along with ProPublica the case of a sex assault victim who failed a lie-detector test which prompted the legislation. “Around the country, people are starting to see that this is probably not the best way in which to interview the victim of sexual assault.”

The victim, who reported his therapist had abused him during sessions, said his failed polygraph sent him spiraling, the Tribune reported. The therapist was ultimately arrested and charged in the case, ProPublica reported.

“I had so much trauma,” he told the newspaper. “And so, certainly, when they asked me questions about the particular things that happened in therapy, it’s going to elicit a very strong emotional response.”

The proposed bill includes language that law enforcement may not “request or compel a victim of a sexual offense to submit to a polygraph examination during the course of a criminal investigation or prosecution of a sexual offense,” cannot “use a polygraph examination as a condition of proceeding with a criminal investigation or prosecution of a sexual offense,” and that “refusal of a victim of a sexual offense to submit to a polygraph examination may not prevent the investigation, charging, or prosecution of a sexual offense.”

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