Bias in photospreads of faces: A comparison of two lineup construction methods

Recent research suggests that the current method of lineup construction produces biased or suggestive lineups. Earlier studies used face composite stimuli to assemple the lineups. The present study uses more realistic materials, actual face photographs. Ten pairs of subjects constructed photospread lineups using the traditional method of selecting lineup members who are similar in appearance to the suspect. Another ten pairs of subjects constructed lineups using an alternative construction method. The lineups were then given to a separate group of subjects who had never seen the photographs before and were asked to try to select the face that was the basis for each lineup. The results showed that traditional lineup con' ,uction method produced bias towards the target/suspect. The alternative construction method produ(.ed "..:ssbias, but not significantly less than the traditional method. These results have implications hr Aaw enforcement personnel concerned with the construction and presentation of lineups. INTRODUcnON Eyewitness identification is an important part of many criminal investigations, and in some cases, such as assaults and rape, it may be the only direct evidence available (Malpass & Devine, 1984). After viewing a crime, an eyewitness may be asked by law enforcement officials to examine a live lineup. The lineup (also called the identity parade) contains several persons known to be innocent plus one person suspected by the police to have committed the crime. The purpose of the lineup is to allow the witness to identify the person they saw under conditions that avoid the identification of an innocent police suspect. Protection of the innocent suspect is afforded by a fair lineup. A fair lineup presents the suspect free from any form of suggestiveness or bias. A biased or suggestive lineup is defined as a lineup which has been constructed such that non eyewitnesses are able guess the suspect. More formally, when persons who did not witness a crime are able to correctly select the suspect from a lineup more often (or less often) than would be expected by chance then the lineup is biased. Chance is defined as l/n, with n being the number of people in the lineup (Doob & Kirshenbaum, 1973). To avoid bias, police use a lineup construction procedure of selecting other members of the lineups (innocent foils or distractors) who are similar in appearance to the suspect. Wells, Leippe, and Ostrom (1979) suggest that distractor members of the lineup should be plausible and similar in appearance to the suspect as well as to each other. Malpass and Devine (1983) state that the similarity requirement appears in all of the lineup construction guidelines that they reviewed. However, this criterion has not always been followed. Buckhout (1977) reports a police lineup in which a black suspect was placed in a lineup with five white distractor members. The United States Supreme Court has reviewed several cases of alleged lineup biases and cites instances of suggestiveness. In one famous eyewitness identification case, United States v. Wade (1967) the suspect was known to be a young man, but the lineup consisted of several men over forty years of age and one teenager. The Court also cited another case where, a male Oriental suspect was placed in a lineup in 541 which he was the only Oriental.