SCIENCE AND GRIME

Evening Star, Issue 20898, 15 September 1931, Page 10

SCIENCE AND GRIME

Delicate oscillations of tbc_ “ lie detector ” have been called into play upon two Rochester men suspected as bombers in a demonstration to _ illustrate to the International Association of Identification what science can do in checking stories of men and women who fall into police hands (says the ‘New York Times’). The device was demonstrated by its developer, Colonel Calvin Goddard, of North-western University. The suspects, Alpbouso Camp and Tony Lalluto, arrested in a police investigation of the bombing of a bakery operated by a man who said lie refused to submit to price edicts of a retail association, submitted voluntarily to the ordeal. The nature of their testimony was not disclosed. The “ lie detector,” whoso apparatus reacts immediately to nervous tension or faster blood flow after once it has been attuned to the subject, was said by Colonel Goddard to be generally accurate in its findings. So delicate is the apparatus, he said, that a subject can he asked to select a card from a deck, and will react at once when the correct card is picked up. Dr Stanhope Bayne-Jones, head of the department of bactoriologj’ of the University of Rochester, declared that blood tests of criminals and blood samples from dead bodies are vital factors in criminal identification.

While not positive means of identification, the tests serve to narrow The field and reduce problems of investigation, he said. _ The ultra-violet ray method of uncovering forgeries also was demonstrated.

Psychiatry’s greatest contribution to the solution of the crime problem is prevention, according to Dr Eric Clark, associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester. “ About the biggest thing a psychiatrist can hope to do is to return, the individual to his rightful place in the community,” Dr Clark said. “ Such procedure necessitates close contact with the courts and police. _ In order to do their best psychiatrists should concentrate on child guidance programmes. By . working with , the young they should bo able to reduce delinquency.” i Sole prints of newly-born babies arc the only reliable means of certain identification, Dr Israel Cos tel Janos, director of the Bureau of Identification at Havana, told the convention. Violet ray, pulse rates, and finger-prints cannot be counted upon as reliable, ho said.