The impact of weapons and unusual objects on the construction of facial composites

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. Par...

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VerfasserInnen: Erickson, William Blake (VerfasserIn) ; Brown, Charity (VerfasserIn) ; Portch, Emma (VerfasserIn) ; Lampinen, James Michael (VerfasserIn) ; Marsh, John E. (VerfasserIn) ; Fodarella, Cristina (VerfasserIn) ; Petkovic, Anna (VerfasserIn) ; Coultas, Carly (VerfasserIn) ; Newby, Amanda (VerfasserIn) ; Date, Louisa (VerfasserIn) ; Hancock, Peter J. B. (VerfasserIn) ; Frowd, Charlie D. (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2024
In: Psychology, crime & law
Jahr: 2024, Band: 30, Heft: 3, Seiten: 207–228
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Schlagwörter:
Law Enforcement
EvoFIT
weapon
Facial composite
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung: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.
ISSN:1477-2744
DOI:10.1080/1068316X.2022.2079643