NCJ Number
209685
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2005 Pages: 63-81
Date Published
February 2005
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study compared the accuracy of five facial composite techniques.
Abstract
Witnesses to crimes are often asked to help law enforcement officers construct a facial composite, or visual representation, of a perpetrator’s face. There are several techniques that allow composites to be created by those lacking artistic talent. The current study evaluated five facial composite techniques, E-FIT, PROfit, FACES, sketch, and Evofit for their composite naming accuracy. The study utilized a methodology reflecting composite construction under realistic conditions by allowing an interval of 2 days to pass between seeing an assailant and constructing a facial composite. Participants were 50 individuals who had not previously constructed a composite and were paid for their participation. Participants were shown a photograph of a celebrity for 1 minute and were asked to construct a facial composite of that celebrity 2 days later. Outcome data were gathered by asking independent observers to name the composites through the use of either sorting or line-up techniques. Results showed that composites were only named in 3 percent of the cases, overall. Sketches had the highest composite naming rate at 8 percent. Sorting provided a better match than line-up. The findings suggest that the manually-generated sketches used in past police work are better than the computerized systems in terms of composite identification and, further, that line-up techniques are poor ways of conducting facial composite identification. Future research should focus on improving composite quality. Tables, references