Forensic psychological examination with the use of polygraph as a means of proof

The growing international interest in the polygraph, driven by both law enforcement demand and commercial incentives, has led to an overstated perception of its evidentiary value in legal proceedings. The purpose of this paper was to determine, based on the analysis of regulatory legal acts, academic publications, national judicial practice, and European Court of Human Rights decisions, the criteria for using the polygraph in proving as one of the methods of forensic psychological examination. The study applied a range of general scientific and legal research methods, including: the system-structural method for analysing the field of criminal proceedings and the practice of using the polygraph; historical and dialectical methods to examine the evolution of academic approaches to polygraph application; the logical-semantic method to clarify key concepts; and the comparative legal method for analysing national legislation, European Court of Human Rights decisions, and judicial practice. The study led to the following conclusions: forensic psychological examination is a comprehensive psychological study to identify the individual psychological characteristics of a participant in criminal proceedings applying a wide range of methods, one of which may be a polygraph; the decision on the use of a polygraph is made by an expert, taking into consideration technological, legal and ethical aspects; the technological aspect is that the polygraph records only the physiological reactions of the person under examination to certain stimuli, which must be assessed by the expert; the legal aspect is the presence in national legislation of clear provisions regarding the subject of a polygraph examination, the procedure for its conduct (methodology) and assessment criteria; the ethical aspect is the inadmissibility of forced or covert use of a polygraph, which provides for an explanation of the rights of the person and the procedure for obtaining written voluntary consent in accordance with the basic principle of legal proceedings – the right of a person not to testify against him or herself. The formulated provisions on the use of a polygraph are oriented towards practical use by criminal proceedings participants