Tag Archives: enforcement

Body Language Decoded

Body Language Decoded takes us in to the mysterious world of non-verbal communication, what do we say without realising and how can we read the signals others give us involuntarily? We look deep in to the science of Body Language as well as practical applications in law enforcement, romance, commerce, national security and more.

As human beings, our bodies communicate our inner emotions and feelings in ways that can often be easily seen by others, but at other times are barely visible.  On every continent and in every ethnicity, expressions of emotions such as happiness, surprise, anger and fear are universally recognised. These expressions are hard-wired into our facial muscles for reasons that have everything to do with human evolution and survival of the species. To the trained observer, the way people move can be more revealing than the things people say.

Forensic Psychologist Dr. Stephen Porter describes how his team helped solve a murder mystery by accurately reading the body language of a key witness, and correctly concluding that she was not being truthful in a heart-rending television news appearance.  In Amsterdam, we are introduced to a company that is engaged in cutting-edge research and development that is enabling computers to recognize the gender, ethnicity and facial expressions of human beings.  And from Harvard University, social psychologist Amy Cuddy explains how it’s not just that our bodies display outwardly what we are feeling inside. In fact, the reverse is also true: we can actually influence the way we feel by changing the way we move.

We all use our intuition when trying to understand another person’s intentions or needs. We watch the way they walk, and how they stand. We look for their eye-contact, and whether they appear comfortable or anxious. But when intuition is augmented by scientifically based observational techniques, the picture becomes much clearer.  These techniques are increasingly being used in the worlds of law-enforcement, surveillance and security, as well as politics and commerce. Understanding the ‘non-verbals’ of the people we encounter gives us an edge that can mean the difference between a sale or no-sale, between an election victory or defeat, between safety and danger, and even between a successful or doomed relationship.

Twilight of the Yakuza

The Yakuza, Japan’s organised crime syndicates, are a dying breed. Their members are aging and the government of Japan has launched a large-scale crackdown on them to eradicate them once and for all. But who are the Yakuza? The cancer of a nation or a necessary evil in a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the industrialised world?

Undoubtedly the Yakuza are involved in crimes including extortion, fraud, murder, drugs & gambling. However, Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the industrialised world, with crimes related to drugs -officially against the Yakuza code of honour- or street gangs strikingly low, a fact that many contribute to the presence of the Yakuza. Deeply rooted in Japanese society, they are seen as a necessary evil and ‘problem solvers’. They have been around since the 1700s and were said to protect the weak from the strong, following a rigorous code of honour. Several clans even contributed aid for the victims of the recent earthquake and Tsunami, all reasons why the public perception of the Yakuza in Japan is not solely a negative one.

Unlike the Mafia, the Yakuza is a legal, public group making them relatively easy to check on. Their offices are public, their members registered by the police and Yakuza members went as far as freely admitting their guilt in cases of crime investigations, as a part of their code of honour. In reaction to strict government measures against them, the Yakuza has ceased all cooperation with the law. As the police concentrate their resources on the Yakuza, many criminals simply don’t register with clans anymore and start operating underground, evading the grasp of police. A clear trend is emerging towards a new structure of organised crime in Japan, resulting in a steep decrease in the numbers of the traditional Yakuza while the underground is soaring – including foreign Russian and Chinese mafia’s.

This documentary deals with the struggle of the Yakuza for its survival and the restructuring of the organized crime scene in Japan. Furthermore, unprecedented access to the secret world of the Yakuza gives you an insight on who the Yakuza really are: criminals, outcasts, but also family men and a part of Japanese society.