Validity of Statements

In the research project Validity of Statements, ALLP members examine how we can determine to what extent statements by witnesses, victims and suspect correspond to what really happened.

In his Ph.D. research, André de Zutter, supervised by Robert Horselenberg and Peter van Koppen, examined the validity of rape allegations. He identified a number of crucial variables that could help investigators distinguish between true and false allegations of rape.

Another line of investigation within this project is the role of consistency in statements. Some years ago, Annelies Vredeveldt, Peter van Koppen and Pär Anders Granhag conducted a systematic review in which they identified four different types of consistency: within-statement consistency, between-statement-consistency, within-group consistency and statement-evidence consistency. Their review of the literature showed that most types of consistency do not bear any relation to the truthfulness of the statement.

See also our publications about the validity of statements.