People who wear a disguise are attempting to conceal their appearance or change how they look. Culprits may wear any of a number of possible disguises for the commission of a crime. For example, a bank robber may wear a ski mask, or dark sunglasses and a knit cap. Changes in facial characteristics may result
A substantial base of laboratory research is now available to aid our understanding of eyewitness identification processes and to support recommendations for lineup reform. However, there are also a limited number of peer-reviewed, published studies that measure eyewitness responses in real police cases. Although few, the studies include large-scale investigations involving a sizable combined sample
This research paper focuses on the degree to which experts and others are persuaded that each of a number of factors influences the accuracy of eyewitness identifications. Supreme Court cases, among them United States v. Amaral (1973) and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993), have opened avenues of research addressing how the influence of various
Perhaps the ultimate form of eyewitness evidence is the identification of a suspect from a live or photo lineup, as opposed to more general information provided by a witness, such as a verbal description of an event. Best-practice recommendations in this area are based on a combination of some good procedures used by law enforcement
Eyewitnesses are often asked to indicate how confident they are in the accuracy of their identification and other testimony-relevant judgments. These reports are highly influential in evaluations of identification accuracy. Unfortunately, eyewitnesses’ confidence reports are highly malleable, easily influenced by myriad variables. The solution is to record witnesses’ confidence in their identification and report of
A bias in an identification procedure is any factor— other than recognition—that leads witnesses to select a person. Clothing bias can occur whenever someone is viewed in an identification procedure wearing clothing that matches the witness’s description of the clothing worn during the crime. A witness may mistakenly select the suspect based on the clothing
Action Identification Theory Definition People usually know what they are doing, intend to do, or have done in the past. How people achieve an unambiguous understanding of their behavior is rather remarkable when one considers the variety of ways in which any action can be identified. “Taking a test,” for example, could be identified as