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> Study after study has found that attempts – even by trained police officers – to read lies from body language and facial expressions are more often little better than chance.

Yet juries in rape trials supposedly do it all the time...or don't they?



Why single out rape trials specifically?


Rape is interesting in this regard because it is an especially severe crime that might be very hard to proof. Murder has a body and a weapon, but rape might be indistinguishable from consensual sex, when you just look at hard physical evidence (medical examination, text messages, ...). If you want to give justice to most rape victims, you have to decide who is lying, and who is saying the truth.


Most white collar crimes also fall in that category. Was it pure negligence or was it engineered ?


Rape is also a crime where people incorrectly judge what a real victim acts like, and are likely to assume actual victims are lying.


> If you want to give justice to most rape victims, you have to decide who is lying, and who is saying the truth.

It is also possible that both victim and rapist are telling the truth, but it still is an open question if it's a rape. Example: Julian Assange case with the broken condom.


Are any other kinds of trials little more than a game of spot-the-liar?




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