Abstract

SCAN(Scientific Content Analysis) is one of the most popular statement analysis techniques being used by investigators in many countries. SCAN analyzes the content and structure of statements of suspects, victims, or witnesses and evaluates their credibility. The principles of SCAN are incorporated into several criteria The presence of each criterion is assumed to be an indication of deception and is more likely to be observed in deceptive statements rather than truthful ones. This study attempts to test the validity of SCAN in analyzing witness statements written in Korean language. Three experimental groups were manipulated Truthful group saw a real car theft video dip and truthfully wrote about what they actually saw. False group 1 saw the same car theft video clip but intentionally described the theft scene incorrectly. False group 2, saw a non-criminal neutral video clip and wrote as if they saw a car theft crime. Two raters scored SCAN total for each subject's statement applying Smith's(2001) 13 SCAN criteria The results showed significant differences in SCAN total scores between the truthful group and false groups, in which two false groups obtained significantly higher SCAN scores than the truthful group and there were no differences between the two false groups. Four of 13 criteria significantly differentiated between the truthful and false groups. The results of this study showed that SCAN could be applied to witness statements written in Korean language although the statements were experimentally derived. But some limitations of the current study are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.