A written statement is not just a record of events. It’s a window into the mind of the person who wrote it. Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) and related techniques allow a trained analyst to identify indicators of deception, omission, and psychological distancing that are invisible to the untrained reader.
Key Indicators of Deception in Written Statements
- Pronoun changes: A shift from “I” to “we” or passive constructions at key moments often indicates discomfort with personal accountability.
- Temporal lacunae: Time gaps in a narrative that the writer skips over or rushes through frequently correspond to the period of deceptive activity.
- Lack of denial: Truthful people typically deny wrongdoing clearly and directly. Deceptive writers often answer a different question.
- Extraneous information: Unsolicited detail that doesn’t advance the narrative sometimes indicates an attempt to establish an alibi or redirect attention.
Written statement analysis is a specialist skill that requires proper training and must be applied alongside other investigation tools — it is not a lie detector. But in skilled hands, it can direct an investigation toward the right questions and the right people, significantly reducing time and cost.