NCJ Number
159265
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1995) Pages: 373-385
Date Published
1995
Length
13 pages
Annotation
Eyewitness identification of criminal suspects from lineups and photospreads constitutes the largest single cause of false imprisonment in the United States.
Abstract
When a criminal investigation produces both an eyewitness and a suspect, the next legal step is an identification test. Typically, investigating police detectives construct either a live or a photo lineup that includes the suspect and perhaps four to six innocent foils. Foils are chosen because they match the verbal description of the suspect provided by the eyewitness and/or because they resemble the suspect. The traditional lineup identification test has well-documented risks, especially the danger of false identification. Evidence supports the view that identification is governed at least in part by relative judgment processes. The relative judgment idea simply states that eyewitnesses tend to choose the person who most resembles their memory of the suspect relative to other lineup members. The authors criticize a lineup technique proposed by Levi and Jungman in which eyewitnesses choose several people from a large set of photos based on their similarity to the suspect. The criticisms relate to witness motivation, similarity and distinctiveness between innocent suspects and the alleged offender, police behavior, and decision quality across faces and time. The Levi and Jungman proposal is considered to be an investigatory tool rather than a practical approach to providing courtroom-quality evidence. 6 references