Making A Case

1
Making A Case

• Interviewing Witnesses

2
Recognising Faces
Detecting Lies
Top-down Typology (FBI)
Factors Affecting Identification
Interrogation Techniques
Bottom-up Approach (Canter)
Cognitive Interview
False Confessions
Case Study (Railway Rapist)
3
Introduction Interviewing Witnesses

• Within this topic there are three areas to
  consider
• gt Recognising faces.gt Factors influencing
  identification.gt The cognitive interview.
• Each of these areas has a research study to
  support the findings under the heading of
  interviewing witnesses.

4
Interviewing Witnesses

• One key area for the police and to be able to
  make a case is the interviewing of witnesses who
  may have vital evidence to give. Research from
  the cognitive approach suggests that what a
  witness sees and remembers is influenced by many
  factors including
• What might these factors include?

5
WHAT IS AN E-FIT?
Computerised method of synthesising images to
produce facial composites of wanted criminals
based on eyewitness descriptions
6
Who is this?
7
Recognising Faces

• Recognising faces is a highly complex process
  that appears unique and fine-tuned in human
  beings.
• The Thatcher Effect shows us that we are inclined
  to recognise upright faces.
• These findings and others help us to understand
  the importance of accurate face recognition
  during the process of interviewing witnesses.

8
The Thatcher Effect

• The Thatcher effect has shown that people are
  more likely to show recognition for the face
  which has upright distinct internal facial
  features.

9
Recognising Faces 35-36

• Bruce and other researchers have shown that there
  is a clear difference between recognising
  familiar and unfamiliar faces.
• Read the handout on Sinha et al (2006) research
  from a meta-analysis of face recognition
  research.
• Match the 8 key factors on slide 9 that influence
  facial recognition.

10
Sinha et al. (2006) Summary of Face Recognition
research.
Low-resolution images
Facial reconstruction
Familiarity
Required for facial reconstruction
Faces processed as a whole (holistically)
Facial reconstruction is stationary
Eyebrows and hairline most important
CCTV images
Illumination influences recognition
Everyone has the ability to recognise faces
Motion of face helps recognition
Crimewatch TV programme
Special neurons developed for recognition
Facial reconstruction is expressionless
Faces and expressions are processed differently
Suspect seen in poor light
11
Background to Bruce et als study

• Familiar faces enjoy high recognition even under
  difficult circumstances, whereas unfamiliar ones
  are often misidentified even in good conditions.
• Familiar faces are recognised using their
  internal features (eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth)
  
  
• Whereas unfamiliar ones are recognised by
  external features such as head shape, hair and
  ears....
• Witnesses tend to see suspects for a very short
  time and therefore use unfamiliar face perception
  when creating a composite.
• This means that external features will be
  described best.
• However, witnesses are trying to recognise
  familiar faces and therefore are relying on the
  internal features to identify them.

12
Internal and External Features
13
Evaluation of Recognising Faces Bruce et al

• What was the sample?
• What was the sampling method?
• Can it be generalised?

14
Evaluation of Recognising Faces Bruce et al

• What method was used in the study?
• What are the strengths of this method?
• What are the weaknesses of this method?
• What is the advantage of using an independent
  design in this study?

15
Evaluation of Recognising Face Bruce et al

• Comment on the reliability of memory in facial
  recognition?
• Comment on the reliability of the study (think
  about doing two experiments)

16
PROBLEMS / ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH FACE
RECOGNITION

• Expectations / stereotypes (Duncan, 1976)
• Limitations of technology
• - exposure mode (static expressionless)
• Errors in police procedure PG39

17
Factors influencing identification - Weapon
focusLoftus et al

• What happens when a weapon is involved in the
  crime?
• Weapon focus refers to the concentration of a
  witnesss attention on a weapon which results in
  them having difficulty in recalling other details
  of the scene identifying the person of the
  crime.

18
Weapon Focus

• This is an estimator variable and is the idea
  that a witness will focus more closely on the
  weapon than they will on the person holding the
  weapon.
• There is debate about the reason for this effect
  and whether it is caused by the danger posed by
  the weapon or the unusualness of the situation
• Research into stress suggests that we perform
  poorly when we are at both high and low levels of
  arousal and best at a medium level of arousal
  ( Yerkes Dodson Law). This would suggest
  that a witness recall of crime would be poor
  when their level of physiological arousal is
  high. Attempts to test this hypothesis are
  affected by both ecological validity and ethical
  issues.

19
Evaluating factors influencing identification
Weapon focus Loftus et al

• What method was used in the study?
• What are the strengths of this method?
• What are the weaknesses of this method?

20
Evaluating factors influencing identification
Weapon focus Loftus et al

• Self-reports were also used in the study. What
  are the problems with this method?
• Is eye fixation data a valid measure of someones
  attention to pieces of research?
• Why is it effective to have a control group in
  this case?

21
Evaluating factors influencing identification
Weapon focus Loftus et al

• What other factors besides the weapon could have
  caused the individual to forget what happened in
  the crime scene?
• Comment on the reliability of the study (note
  two experiments were carried out).

22
The cognitive interviewFisher et al

• The cognitive interview is a set of instructions
  given by the interviewer to the witness to
  reinstate the context of the original event and
  to search through memory by using a variety of
  retrieval methods
• It rests on two basic assumptions
• Memory of an event is made up of an
  interconnected network and that there should
  therefore be several ways of getting to the same
  point.
• Retrieval from memory will be more effective if
  at the time of retrieval the context surrounding
  the original events can be reinstated.
• Cognitive interviewing is designed to facilitate
  accurate recall through a set of instructions.

23
The Principles of CI Page 42

• Interview Similarity
• Focused retrieval
• Extensive retrieval
• Witness-compatible questioning

24
Fisher et al. Field Test of the Cognitive
Interview

• Fisher and Geigelman
• Found that if detectives were trained in CIT
  (cognitive interview technique, they found out
  significantly more information than those who
  were not trained.
• It did take longer to conduct the interview, but
  the difference was not significant.

25
The cognitive interviewFisher et al

• There are four basic principles, according to
  Fisher et al (1989). Explain each of them in a
  bit more detail
• Interview similarity
• Focused retrieval
• Extensive retrieval
• Witness-compatible questioning

26
Evaluating the cognitive interviewFisher et al

• What could be a problem with the sample?
• Which types of crimes will work best with the
  cognitive interview?
• The CI depends on the witness being cooperative.
  Why?
• What are some of the problems with the CI?
• What do the police need to be careful about when
  carrying out the cognitive interview?

27
Overall Evaluating research into Interviewing
Witnesses

• How are the studies reductionist?
• Do the studies explain witness behaviour through
  personality or situational factors?
• Is the research ethnocentric?

28
Evaluating research into Interviewing Witnesses

• How can the research findings be applied to
  everyday life?