Yet another court has recently found that compelling an individual to answer sexual history questions during a polygraph violates the Fifth Amendment.

As part of sex offender “treatment” a probationer is generally forced to take a sexual history polygraph during which questions about their past behavior are asked. If they refuse, they can be sent back to prison for refusing to participate in “treatment”. If they comply, they might find themselves being investigated for additional crimes they admit to or come up as deceptive on.

The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution is our protection against self incrimination. It states that an individual cannot be compelled to produce evidence that may later be used against them in a criminal action. In other words; you can’t be forced to testify against yourself. It is the foundation for the Miranda warnings (“you have the right to remain silent…”) which every criminal defendant is reminded of at the time of arrest.

The problem with sexual history polygraphs is you don’t have the right to remain silent and not only are you forced to produce evidence against yourself, but you are doing it while hooked to a lie detector and under threat of being put back into prison if you don’t comply.

Slowly that problem is going away as more courts recognize the grievous wrong that’s being done to our Constitution. Most recently, the 10th Circuit ruled that compelling someone in treatment to answer questions that could incriminate himself was unconstitutional.

For those who want to read the case, it can be found here: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12587314808326607463&q=United+States+v.+Von+Behren+&hl=en&as_sdt=40006&as_ylo=2016

 

 

 

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