Scientific basis of the System for Analysis of Validity in Evaluation: The SAVE Metaprotocol.

Abstract

There are multiple situations, often related to the administrative or judicial field, in which it is necessary to use a healthy skepticism, to question the validity of an assertion, appealing to the evidence that can prove or disprove it. (Shermer, 2008). From a child custody issue to facing a harsh criminal conviction, to applying for a disability pension or obtaining an indemnity in an insurance context; in all of them, there is the opportunity to use deception for one's own benefit, harming a third party, through fraud. As we know, opportunity, together with prior motivation or incentive and subsequent justification, constitute the classic fraud triangle proposed by Cressey (1961).
 This questioning of the validity of the case understood as its accuracy or correspondence with what it pretends to be and independently of its various types, is only possible from a method of analysis based on scientific evidence that benefits from using a system ordered by rules for the investigation - which we know as a protocol (Amezcua, 2000) - as well as a multiple approaches (Campbell and Fiske, 1959) that is proportionate to a conception of the detection and demonstration of deception from the approach of complexity (Cardozo, 2011). If, in addition, such a system was sufficiently flexible to be useful in the daily practice of the various fields in which it may be necessary to use it, it could represent a significant advance in this area.
 These, together with those of Behavior Analysis in Ethology, Criminology, and Psychology, are the initial theoretical bases on which the System of Analysis of Validity in Evaluation (SAVE) is designed, establishing four phases in two domains of multiple and orderly but flexible application, to scientifically question the validity of a case and provide it with consistency and even legal value when appropriate. Although SAVE was born in a clinical context (Domínguez-Muñoz et al., 2014) its main area of knowledge is the study of lying and deception, an area in which there is a large bibliography, somewhat dispersed among various disciplines, which must be incorporated as a source of academic knowledge for its use in the applied field (Domínguez-Muñoz et al., 2017).
 

Behavioral analysis in forensic setting with the SAVE method

“…These, together with the integration of the various disciplines already explained, along with those inherent to any analysis of human behavior in Ethology, would be the bases of SAVE (Domínguez-Muñoz, 2021b), establishing four phases in two domains of flexible application to scientifically question the validity of a case, confirming its consistency and legal value. Created in a clinical context (Domínguez-Muñoz, et al, 2013), in its four phases the different manifestations of human behavior are specifically studied; the verbal analysis of the discourse is included in the section of Verisimilitude (Grau, 2021), called V1.…”

“…Thus, among other entities, we are grateful for the collaboration (in Spain) with the Criminal Behavior Analysis Section (SACD) of the Guardia Civil, the Behavior Analysis Section (SAC) of the Cuerpo National de Policía, the Centro de Inteligencia de las Fuerzas Armadas (CIFAS), the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) and its Academy, where we had the honor of presenting the MOSAVE (Domínguez-Muñoz, 2021a), developed in accordance with the objectives of the PsycInt Group, of Psychological Intelligence. In addition, by participating in various training activities and congresses in the field of Legal and Forensic Psychology, Neuropsychology, Health Law, Valuation of Bodily Injuries, Criminology, Sociology, Detection of Deception, Ergonomics or R+D+i in Defense and Security, for which we would like to thank all those who made this possible, the Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social (INSS) and its Subdirección General de Coordinación de UnidadesMédicas, in particular; have provided the foundations (Domínguez-Muñoz, 2021b) for designing and perfecting a flexible system that can be useful in many areas, especially in the analysis of behavior in the forensic and expert witness fields; the System for the Analysis of Validity in Evaluation (SAVE).…”