As a former federal law enforcement officer...I know that these crimes occur far too often.

Most of us are familiar with the case of Casey Anthony. Anthony stands accused of the brutal murder of her 2-year old daughter Caylee. Last week, jury selections began for her upcoming trial in a Florida courtroom. As with her other earlier court appearances, jailhouse conversations and photographs, Anthony's behavior is fodder for the tabloids, cause for extensive evaluation in the media and in particular - analysis of her body language.

I was invited to discuss the "Tot Mom's" erratic behavior during jury selections last week for CNN's Headline News with Nancy Grace. Drawn to this case for its seemingly unending examples of body language mishaps and to the possibility of enacting justice for a child - I felt compelled to rush to the Miami bureau and weigh in.

To do this job - it is important to suspend judgment - as hard as that is, and approach the investigation with only what I know of body language and communication as my guide.

The evaluation of emotions can be approached by using what we know of the 7 Universal Emotions, as discussed by Dr. Paul Ekman.

Charles Darwin first explored the concept of microexpressions (they can occur as quickly as 1/15 of a second) that crossed gender and cultural boundaries - recognizable throughout the world for what they are: genuine expressions of raw human understanding. Ekman expanded upon the original emotions as asserted by Darwin, and the current list includes contempt, sadness, happiness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust.

Here are some emotions we've already seen with Casey Anthony:

- FEAR (eyebrow up and straight, mouth suddenly opens and is pulled back): Micro-expressions of fear leak out when we experience a perceived threat of danger. Fear is related to escape and avoidance, it's a basic survival mechanism, and it's often associated with future events (what's about to happen within seconds, minutes, hours, or days ahead).

- DISGUST (nose wrinkles and upper lip comes up): Charles Darwin associated disgust with anything revolting, and it is also connected with feelings of dislike, hatefulness, and distaste. Women and children are more sensitive to disgust and will often leak micro-expressions revealing as such.

- SADNESS (inner eyebrows pulled together and bottom lip pouts): This is the hardest emotion to fake, we are less energetic with sadness, and is appears when we feel helpless, disadvantaged, or loss. It is also closely related to the emotion of rage.

- ANGER (brows down and upper lip if pulled straight, so the color of the lip disappears): When people perceive a threat or harm they may leak a micro-expression of anger. In anger, which is a strong uncomfortable emotional response, our heart rate, blood pressure, and adrenaline all increase. Often people experiencing anger attempt to spread out and look larger and in the process they will forget to self-monitor their non-verbals.

Now it's time to put your skills to the test. Visit this YouTube video of Casey Anthony in court on May 10, 2011, and see if you can spot where she leaks micro-expressions of FEAR, DISGUST, SADNESS, AND ANGER?!

Following this exercise - see below to visit the answer key, and see what I had to say on CNN last week.

Once familiar with microexpressions - it will be easy to apply them to conversational situations within your own life.

Do you see an expression of fear when confronting your teen about drug use?

Is your husband exhibiting points of anger when discussing his job?

Is your babysitter leaking expressions of contempt when dealing with your kids?

Now that you can spot these mini windows into the human soul - what will you do with this information?

Can you understand that your teen is scared she might betray a friend she has promised to protect?

What if your husband is hanging on by a thread at the office - and is days away from a breakdown?

Are your children in an unsafe enviornment with the sitter that often appears to be more Mary Poppins than Mommy Dearest?

If you were able to detect these nuances in conversation - how could the results improve your relationships? Or save you from heartache? Or protect your children from harm?

As for Casey Anthony - only time will tell.

Her body language is telling us a story - and it will soon be up to a jury of her peers to unravel the story of Caylee's death - and determine her mother's guilt or innocence.

ANSWER KEY - TIME CODES:

6:12-6:14: When Casey's eyes widen and her neck muscles on the right side of her head tighten, and her eyebrows are pulled up, she has demonstrated FEAR.

6:52-6:54: Did you spot the SADNESS AND FEAR here? If you spotted Casey's wrinkled forehead and eyebrows pulled together and up you observed true SADNESS, then is you were looking closely, you noticed her eyes suddenly opened wide, so much so that she flashed, what law enforcement officers call, "The 3 Whites," this is the white part of the eyes to the top and to the sides. When "The 3 Whites" make their debut, there is major FEAR!

9:25-9:36: Casey flashes her infamous, "WTF Face." She demonstrates ANGER when she juts out her right arm, tilts her head to the side and slightly up, and when her upper lip is pulled up and her brows come down, she shows us DISGUST.

9:36: Check out how Casey's mouth is open and taught, here she leaks FEAR.