911 CALLS IN MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES OF CHILDREN – INDICATORS OF VERACITY AND DECEPTION

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. Specifically, the current study compared differences between a sample of caregivers who falsely reported a child missing to conceal their role in the child’s homicide and truthful caregivers who reported a child missing and had no knowledge of the child’s whereabouts at the time of the call. Results show promise and consistency with previously proposed indicators of veracity and deception. Specifically, a greater number of self-handicapping statements were made by deceptive individuals, whereas truthtellers were more likely to spontaneously selfcorrect. Practical implications are discussed.

1 | DECEPTION IN 911 CALLS: MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES OF CHILDREN

Although hundreds of thousands of children are reported missing each year in the United States, most result from non-criminal events, such as miscommunications, the child running away, being lost or stranded, or other benign explanations (Sedlak et al., 2017) and the majority are recovered alive in minimal time. Less common causes of child disappearances are due to criminal incidents like child abductions (Warren et al., 2020). Regardless of the origin, law enforcement often has limited information at the outset of these cases and must rely on initial reporting when making crucial early decisions.

Information provided in 911 calls relating to missing children may therefore provide valuable insight for first responders in determining the best course of action in responding to such calls. Reports of a missing child often result in a significant law enforcement response that can strain available resources. However, limited research exists in the usefulness of information provided in 911 calls. The purpose of this study is to examine the number of investigative leads provided across different types of missing child cases (benign and criminal), as well as potential indicators of veracity and deception. We first provide a brief summary of various types of criminal cases of missing children before discussing previous 911 studies and research into indicators of veracity and deception.

1.1 | CHILD ABDUCTION

Most child abductions are perpetrated by family members (Sedlak et al., 2002) during custodial disputes between caregivers (Finkelhor et al., 1991). These children are normally recovered alive in a relatively short period of time and typically resolve without caregivers being criminally charged (Grasso et al., 2001; Johnston & Girdner, 2001). The identities of custodial abduction perpetrators are also generally known by the reporting party and law enforcement from the outset (Hilts et al., 2015). This differs from cases in which neither the reporting party nor law enforcement holds such knowledge (e.g., noncustodial abductions), or cases in which the reporting party withholds information from law enforcement (e.g., false allegations of child abduction).

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE