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Are police video identifications fair to African–Caribbean suspects?
Author(s) -
Valentine Tim,
Harris Niobe,
Piera Anna Colom,
Darling Stephen
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.880
Subject(s) - suspect , psychology , witness , ethnic group , white (mutation) , context (archaeology) , criminology , social psychology , law , history , political science , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , gene
Analysis of lineups from criminal cases has demonstrated that video technology can produce lineups that are less biased against the suspect than live lineups, and that White suspects are less likely to be identified from a live lineup than suspects of other ethnic origins. The present study assessed the fairness of video lineups of White Europeans and of African–Caribbeans used in actual criminal cases. African–Caribbean and White European participants selected the suspect from each lineup on the basis of the original witness description of the culprit. There was no reliable difference in the fairness of video lineups as a function of the ethnic origin of the lineup members. It is concluded that, within the context of the video system studied, use of video can provide a safeguard against bias against ethnic minorities that may occur in live lineups. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.