Voice Stress

* Douglas himself completed VSA training prior to qualifying as a Polygraph examiner*

We do not endorse or offer any form of Voice Stress (VSA) / Forensic Voice Stress Analysis (FVSA) or any other voice-based software.

Voice Stress Analysis is not Polygraph. “Voice Polygraph” does not exist.

Many Voice Stress Service Providers misleadingly advertise themselves as polygraph examiners or advertise their services as “voice polygraph”.

Polygraphists have been accepted as expert witnesses whose evidence needs to be tested for reliability. The duty of the commissioner is to determine the admissibility and reliability of the evidence. In the same regard VSA or FVSA has not been accepted at the CCMA.

The National Institute of Corrections has published a research study on voice stress analysis (VSA) conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services with support from the National Institute of Justice. From the abstract (emphasis added):

…The goal of this study was to test the validity and reliability of two popular VSA programs (LVA [Layered Voice Analysis] and CVSA [Computer Voice Stress Analyzer]) in a “real world” setting. Questions about recent drug use were asked of a random sample of arrestees in a county jail. Their responses and the VSA output were compared to a subsequent urinalysis to determine if the VSA programs could detect deception. Both VSA programs show poor validity – neither program efficiently determined who was being deceptive about recent drug use. The programs were not able to detect deception at a rate any better than chance….