The effects of a previous description on the identification of an offender

Abstract

Analyse the testimony that witnesses or victims of a crime can offer is crucial for the subsequent identification of the offender. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of a previous description on the identification of an offender through the verbalization of his features. All participants were exposed to a short video where a man stole a purse from a girl. Half of the participants gave a description of the author, while the other half carried out a filler task. Finally, each participant attempted to identify the offender from two recognition lineups. The results show that previous description influences participant recognition performance. The describers adopt a more conservative response criterion. These results suggest that verbalization could have a positive effect on the recognition of an offender through preventing witnesses from falsely identifying innocent people as the perpetrators of a crime that they have not committed.