RT Article
T1 The impact of weapons and unusual objects on the construction of facial composites
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 30
IS 3
SP 207
OP 228
A1 Erickson, William Blake
A2 Brown, Charity
A2 Portch, Emma
A2 Lampinen, James Michael
A2 Marsh, John E.
A2 Fodarella, Cristina
A2 Petkovic, Anna
A2 Coultas, Carly
A2 Newby, Amanda
A2 Date, Louisa
A2 Hancock, Peter J. B.
A2 Frowd, Charlie D.
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1885230893
AB The presence of a weapon in the perpetration of a crime can impede an observer’s ability to describe and/or recognise the person responsible. In the current experiment, we explore whether weapons when present at encoding of a target identity interfere with the construction of a facial composite. Participants encoded an unfamiliar target face seen either on its own or paired with a knife. Encoding duration (10 or 30 s) was also manipulated. The following day, participants recalled the face and constructed a composite of it using a holistic system (EvoFIT). Correct naming of the participants’ composites was found to reduce reliably when target faces were paired with the weapon at 10 s but not at 30 s. These data suggest that the presence of a weapon reduces the effectiveness of facial composites following a short encoding duration. Implications for theory and police practice are discussed.
K1 Law Enforcement
K1 EvoFIT
K1 weapon
K1 Facial composite
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2022.2079643