The benefit of context for facial-composite construction

Skelton, Faye C; Frowd, Charlie D; Speers, Kathryn E

Abstract

Purpose - The aim of this study was to investigate whether the presence of a whole-face context during facial composite production facilitates construction of facial composite images.
Design/Methodology - In Experiment 1, constructors viewed a celebrity face and then developed a facial composite using PRO-fit in one of two conditions: either the full-face was visible while facial features were selected, or only the feature currently being selected was visible. The composites were named by different participants. We then replicated the study using a more forensically-valid procedure: In Experiment 2 non-football fans viewed an image of a premiership footballer and 24 hours later constructed a composite of the face with a trained software operator. The resulting composites were named by football fans.
Findings - In both studies we found that presence of the facial context promoted more identifiable facial composite images.
Research limitations/implications – Though this study uses current software in an unconventional way, this was necessary to avoid error arising from between-system differences.
Practical implications - Results confirm that composite software should have the whole-face context visible to witnesses throughout construction. Though some software systems do this, there remain others that present features in isolation and these findings show that these systems are unlikely to be optimal.
Originality/value - This is the first study to demonstrate the importance of a full-face context for the construction of facial composite images. Results are valuable to police forces and developers of composite software.

Citation

Skelton, F. C., Frowd, C. D., & Speers, K. E. (2015). The benefit of context for facial-composite construction. British Journal of Forensic Practice, 17(4), 281-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-08-2014-0022

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 9, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 10, 2017
• Print ISSN: 1463-6646
• Electronic ISSN: 2050-8794
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 281-290
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-08-2014-0022
• Keywords: Facial composites; face recall; facial construction; memory retrieval
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/8555
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JFP-08-2014-0022