Professor Sheree Josephson of Weber State University in Utah recently published a study that once again proves that eyewitnesses struggle when trying to identify a suspect of another race. “Whites tended to make a quick decision with few comparison being made to the other photos,” Josephson told the Ogden Standard-Examiner, “while blacks tended to be very cautious, making lots of comparisons.”
Josephson’s study, conducted in North Carolina with Michael E. Holmes of Ball State University, studied four groups of 10 people. Ten black subjects and 10 white subjects were shown a simulated crime committed by a person of their same race. The other 10 black subjects and 10 white subjects were shown a simulated crime committed by a person of a different race. Twenty-four hours later the subjects were asked to look at a photo array that contained a picture of the perpetrator.
Josephson used eye tracking to mark the differences in how each group viewed the photos. Whites identifying same-race suspects took an average of 10 seconds to confidently identify a suspect while blacks took an average of 50 seconds to identify a same-race suspect. Both groups had mixed results when trying to identify a different-race suspect.
The main goal of the study was to determine whether blacks and whites view photo arrays differently which the study concludes they do. Josephson plans more studies saying “It’s a huge problem in society — to do photo arrays or live lineups, and whether pictures should be shown one at a time or all at once, and what an officer should say or not say. When you add in things like cross-racial recognition deficits, it can make things even more interesting.”
Best practices such as blind and sequential administration can help in cutting down mistaken identifications. In California, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties have implemented these practices to great effect.
Sign NCIP’s online petition urging California Attorney General Kamala Harris to endorse implementation of statewide best practices in eyewitness identification procedures.
For more on Josephson’s study, read the story in the Ogden Standard-Examiner here.
