PSYCHOLOGY AND CRIME.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 375, 5 July 1911, Page 7

PSYCHOLOGY AND CRIME.

A Deadly Instrument of Investigation. Experiments carried out by Dr. Jung at Zurich, by Professor Munsterberg from Harvard, and by Dr. Peterson in New-York seem to point to ways of extracting confessions more subtle than the cross-examina-tion of counsel and more humane and reliable than the bullying and cruelty of what in America seem to be called the "third degree" police. By means of such instruments as the psychometer and the chronoscope, both the nerve force expanded and the time taken in replying to questions can be measured and noted. In using the latter, the normal time taken to answer Dy the person examined is ascertained. He is then given a number of words to which he must call, as quickly as possible, the associated ideas —as, for instance, black-white, cat dog, rat-trap, and so on. Amongst the words chosen are dangerous ones relating to the movements of the accused and to some details of the crime committed. If tie is guilty, he will very likely make incriminating replies to them ; or he will have to pause to select his words —and ths hiatus is noted, down to fractions of a second, upon a dial. Again, if he thinks that he has committed himself there will be a shock, and a gap will come immediately after the failing word and may inhibit a perfectly harmless one, which wonld be ominous. Such a system of thought analysis worked out with all the refinements of which it is capable, would prove a deadly instrument of investigation in the hands of an acute and patient Juge d'lnstruction with plenty of time, and might explain many a mystery which would otherwise rest 'Unsolved. —"Saturday Review."