Dr Catriona Harvard, a Psychology Lecturer and researcher at the OU, has spent the last five years looking at techniques for reducing the choosing bias among children between the ages of five and 15 and her findings could hold the key to reducing false identifications among child eye witnesses.
“Children as young as five can be as accurate as adults at identifying someone who has committed a crime. However, they are more likely to choose someone in a line-up, even if the offender is not there” explains Catriona.
Catriona continued: “This is often because children perceive giving an answer is more desirable than admitting the offender isn’t there. They also think that if they are being shown a line-up, then offender must be there. This has serious ramifications for false identifications and false convictions.”
Keen to find techniques to reduce this bias, Catriona conducted a number of experiments which involved participants being shown a film of a crime and then after a delay of one or two days, showing the participant a video line-up and asking them to pick out the offender.
Real life line-ups are now a thing of the past due to being expensive, inaccurate and time consuming, so Catriona used the latest identification technology in her experiments, video line-ups, which has been pioneered in the UK.
Commenting on her research findings Catriona said: “This is a simple technique, but I have been astounded at the significant results which reduced false identifications from 70 per cent to 30 per cent.”
The results of Catriona’s research have been well received to date and so far she has discussed her techniques with the Head of Identification at Thames Valley and Milton Keynes police. Catriona is also in the process of writing a white paper for the Southeast Eye Witness Network (SEEN) and hopes her research will be adopted by those investigating crime.
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