Science & Justice
Volume 49, Issue 3 , Pages 191-196, September 2009

Are facial image analysis experts any better than the general public at identifying individuals from CCTV images?

  • Caroline Wilkinson

      Affiliations

    • The Centre for Anatomy & Human Identification, MSI Building, Dow Street, University of Dundee, Scotland, DD1 5EH, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +44 1382 386324; fax: +44 1382 386817.
    • ,
  • Raymond Evans

      Affiliations

    • Unit of Art in Medicine, Stopford Building, Oxford Road, University of Manchester,M13 9PT, UK

Received 7 August 2008; received in revised form 24 October 2008; accepted 29 October 2008. published online 09 December 2008.

Abstract 

The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy and reliability of a small group of facial imagery experts, and compare their abilities with members of the general public, to ascertain whether or not training and experience will affect the ability to identify faces from CCTV footage.

A number of clips from CCTV footage were utilised alongside face pools. The participants were asked to identify the actor in each CCTV clip and provide a level of confidence in the decision.

The experts tested in this study were consistently better at identification than the public, with almost double the identification rates and half the errors. These results suggest that training and experience in facial analysis will produce more reliable and accurate facial identification.

Keywords: Facial, Identification, CCTV, Expert, Evidence

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PII: S1355-0306(08)00122-6

doi:10.1016/j.scijus.2008.10.011

Refers to corrigendum:

  • Corrigendum to “Are facial image analysis experts any better than the general public at identifying individuals from CCTV images?” [Science and Justice 49 (2009) 191–196] , 12 August 2011

    Caroline Wilkinson, Raymond Evans
    Science & Justice December 2011 (Vol. 51, Issue 4, Pages 218-221)

Science & Justice
Volume 49, Issue 3 , Pages 191-196, September 2009

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