Análisis de contenido en declaraciones de agresoresuna revisión meta-analítica

Resumo

Content analysis of a statement is a method use to assess credibility statements in judicial context. Concretely, the most utilized assessment tool is Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA), which has been originally applied to victim’s statements and in sexual abuse cases, almost exclusively. The interest for this technique, has led to investigate the validity of CBCA in adult offender samples, reaching diverse and contradictory outcomes. With the objective to shed light about the capacity of CBCA to discriminate between real and false accounts and to validate the Undeutsch Hypothesis, we have conducted a meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Results have validated Undeutsch Hypothesis, that is, memories of self-experienced events differ in content and quality from memories of invented events of adult offenders and CBCA has distinguished between both memories, as well. Notwithstanding, nor every reality criteria are applicable to offender’s samples, nor generalizable to other contexts and samples. More research with scientific rigor is needed, made in high fidelity conditions, for reaching more robust decisions. Implications for forensic practice are discussed.