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Unfair lineups make witnesses more likely to confuse innocent and guilty suspects

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Colloff, Melissa F., Wade, Kimberley A. and Strange, D. (2016) Unfair lineups make witnesses more likely to confuse innocent and guilty suspects. Psychological Science, 27 (9). pp. 1227-1239. doi:10.1177/0956797616655789 ISSN 1467-9280.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797616655789

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Abstract

Eyewitness-identification studies have focused on the idea that unfair lineups (i.e., ones in which the police suspect stands out) make witnesses more willing to identify the police suspect. We examined whether unfair lineups also influence subjects’ ability to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects and their ability to judge the accuracy of their identification. In a single experiment (N = 8,925), we compared three fair-lineup techniques used by the police with unfair lineups in which we did nothing to prevent distinctive suspects from standing out. Compared with the fair lineups, doing nothing not only increased subjects’ willingness to identify the suspect but also markedly impaired subjects’ ability to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects. Accuracy was also reduced at every level of confidence. These results advance theory on witnesses’ identification performance and have important practical implications for how police should construct lineups when suspects have distinctive features.

Item Type: Journal Article
Divisions: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology
Journal or Publication Title: Psychological Science
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN: 1467-9280
Official Date: 1 September 2016
Dates:
DateEvent
1 September 2016Published
24 July 2016Available
25 May 2016Accepted
Volume: 27
Number: 9
Page Range: pp. 1227-1239
DOI: 10.1177/0956797616655789
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 31 May 2016
Date of first compliant Open Access: 22 August 2016

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