911 calls in mysterious disappearances of children: Indicators of veracity and deception

O'Donnell, Daniel E.; Shelton, Joy Lynn E.; Huffman, Michelle C.; Porter, Kevin; Miller, Michelle L.

doi:10.1002/acp.4063

Applied Cognitive Psychology

2023

DOI: 10.1002/acp.4063

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911 calls in mysterious disappearances of children: Indicators of veracity and deception

Daniel E. O'Donnell

Joy Lynn E. Shelton

Michelle C. Huffman

et al.

Abstract: 911 calls reporting the mysterious disappearance of a child may contain information critical to law enforcement. If this information is untruthful, valuable resources can be misdirected and precious time may be lost. Therefore, the current study examined verbal cues of veracity and deception in 911 calls placed by caregivers of missing children.

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Cited by 5 publications

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911 calls in death investigations: Indicators of veracity and deception

O'Donnell,

Forbes,

Huffman

et al. 2024

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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The current study examined verbal cues of veracity and deception in 911 calls reporting homicides or suicides of another person. Specifically, the current study compared differences in the presence/absence and number of potential verbal indicators between a sample of deceptive callers who concealed their role in causing the person's death and truthful callers who did not cause the person's death. Results demonstrate consistency with previously proposed indicators of veracity and deception in 911 calls. More precisely, a greater number of self‐handicapping statements and descriptions of physical sensations were made by deceptive individuals, whereas truthtellers were more likely to spontaneously self‐correct inaccurate statements. Practical implications and limitations are discussed.

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911 calls in death investigations: Indicators of veracity and deception

O'Donnell,

Forbes,

Huffman

et al. 2024

Applied Cognitive Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The Linguistic Disposition of Emergency Callers: Using Proximity Coefficients to Identify the Sentiments of Guilty and Innocent Emergency Callers

Elms,

Keatley

2023

J Police Crim Psych

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Staging an emergency call is a form of detection avoidance that can obscure evidence and mislead police investigations. For example, having killed a person, a caller may stage an emergency call to cover it up as an accident, or a person having killed a victim may dispose of the body and call emergency services to claim they are missing. Similarly, inaccurately categorising an emergency call as staged can have large consequences on investigations. The aim of the current research is to assist with the use of emergency call analysis in police investigations by focusing on callers’ underlying psychological sentiment or ‘linguistic disposition’ (LD) in staged and authentic calls. The transcripts of real-world emergency calls from guilty and innocent individuals were linguistically analysed for markers of LD to develop an understanding of callers’ LD towards the subject of the call. Linguistic indicators were then quantified with a method known as proximity coefficients, which showed a difference in the type of disposition exhibited between guilty and innocent callers towards the subject of the call. These findings provide an initial step towards understanding how LD can be used to inform police investigations and outline the next steps for future research.

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How It Begins and Ends: Temporal Positions of Linguistic Indicators in Staged and Authentic Emergency Calls

Elms,

Clarke,

Keatley

2024

J Police Crim Psych

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The utilisation of emergency calls to stage false and misleading narratives can assist offenders in concealing their criminal activity. The majority of emergency call analyses focus on detecting deception; however, investigating the complex temporal ordering of verbal indicators with a measure of proximity may offer new inductive investigative insights. The current research took a novel approach to analysing emergency calls by focusing on the temporal placement of verbal indicators with a measure of proximity coefficients. Results showed that several important differences existed in the temporal ordering of indicators that occur at the start and end of staged and authentic calls. These findings offer an insight as to influence of saliency and the competing priorities that exist between staged and authentic emergency calls. This is the first research to explore the temporal ordering of indicators in emergency calls and to provide a basis for its tentative application to interview strategies.

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911 calls in mysterious disappearances of children: Indicators of veracity and deception

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

911 calls in death investigations: Indicators of veracity and deception

911 calls in death investigations: Indicators of veracity and deception

The Linguistic Disposition of Emergency Callers: Using Proximity Coefficients to Identify the Sentiments of Guilty and Innocent Emergency Callers

How It Begins and Ends: Temporal Positions of Linguistic Indicators in Staged and Authentic Emergency Calls

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