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Citation

Erickson WB, Brown C, Portch E, Lampinen JM, Marsh JE, Fodarella C, Petkovic A, Coultas C, Newby A, Date L, Hancock PJB & Frowd CD (2022) The impact of weapons and unusual objects on the construction of facial composites. Psychology, Crime and Law. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316x.2022.2079643

Abstract
The presence of a weapon in the perpetration of a crime can impede an observer’s ability to describe and/or recognise the person responsible. In the current experiment, we explore whether weapons when present at encoding of a target identity interfere with the construction of a facial composite. Participants encoded an unfamiliar target face seen either on its own or paired with a knife. Encoding duration (10 or 30 s) was also manipulated. The following day, participants recalled the face and constructed a composite of it using a holistic system (EvoFIT). Correct naming of the participants’ composites was found to reduce reliably when target faces were paired with the weapon at 10 s but not at 30 s. These data suggest that the presence of a weapon reduces the effectiveness of facial composites following a short encoding duration. Implications for theory and police practice are discussed.

Keywords
Facial composite; weapon; EvoFIT; law enforcement

Notes
Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Online

Journal
Psychology, Crime and Law

• Erickson Et Al. (in Press). FINAL The Impact Of Weapons And Unusual Objects On The Construction Of Facial Composites