NCJ Number
159264
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1995) Pages: 347-372
Date Published
1995
Length
26 pages
Annotation
The police lineup represents an essential tool of the criminal justice system, but several problems are associated with its use: overbelief in lineup identification, all-or-none nature of the lineup, similarity of foils to the suspect, failure to choose the offender, and small lineup size.
Abstract
Judges know and jurors can be told that eyewitnesses sometimes mistakenly choose an innocent suspect in a lineup, yet they often believe the mistaken eyewitness. Belief in the eyewitness is further strengthened by the aura of scientific accuracy attached to the lineup. The basic logic of the lineup is that either the eyewitness can definitely identify the suspect as the offender or cannot identify the suspect; thus, positive identification carries great weight. Many argue that a fair lineup requires all foils to be selected according to their similarity to the eyewitness description of the suspect. Including foils who are similar to the suspect, however, has two weaknesses: (1) there is no way to determine the optimum degree of specificity; and (2) there is no way to specify what potential descriptors of the suspect should be used to select foils. It is entirely possible that innocent suspects who are similar to the offender will be chosen by mistake in a sequential lineup. Small lineup size increases the likelihood that an innocent suspect will be the lineup member most similar to the offender. Suggestions to address some of the problems associated with lineups and improve lineup misidentification are offered. In particular, the authors propose that eyewitnesses choose several people from a large set of photos based on their similarity to the suspect. 67 references and 3 notes