Should Partial Identifications Be Accepted in Police Lineups? (From Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Crime and Criminology, Fifth Edition, P 244-271, 1998, Richard C. Monk, ed. -- See NCJ-183062)

• NCJ Number: 183076
• Author(s): A. M. Levi; Noam Jungman; Michael R. Leippe; Gary L. Wells
• Editor(s): Richard C. Monk
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Dushkin/McGraw Hill Publishing Group, Inc
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Two Israeli police officials identify serious flaws in existing police line-up procedures and proposed novel remedies such as the allowance of partial identifications, while two psychologists reject key aspects of the partial identification proposal as unrealistic and untested.

Abstract

The Israeli police officials believe that police line-ups constitute an essential tool of justice but remain dangerous. Problems include the over-belief in line-up identifications, the all-or-none nature of the line-up, similarity of foils to the suspect, similarity of innocent suspects to the offender, failure to choose the offender, and the small size of the line-up. A method is proposed that would have witnesses view more than 100 foils, have them choose foils by their own judgment of similarity to the offender, and allow multiple choices from the line-up. In criticizing the method, the two psychologists note that eyewitness identification of suspects from line-ups and photo-spreads is the largest single cause of false imprisonment in the United States. They argue that partial identifications will solve many problems, including the tendency for courts to over-believe eyewitnesses, but that the method requires further testing to determine its efficacy.