Forensic procedures for facial-composite construction

Purpose – The paper provides a detailed description of standard procedures for constructing facial composites. These procedures are relevant to forensic practice and are contained in the technical papers of this special issue; the purpose of this paper is also to provide an expanding reference of pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forensic practice 2015-11, Vol.17 (4), p.259-270
Main Authors: Fodarella, Cristina, Kuivaniemi-Smith, Heidi, Gawrylowicz, Julie, Frowd, Charlie D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Composite materials
Construction standards
Criminal investigations
Criminology & forensic psychology
Forensic practice
Health & social care
Interviews
Laboratories
Recall
Researchers
Retention
Technical papers
Victims of crime
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Summary:Purpose – The paper provides a detailed description of standard procedures for constructing facial composites. These procedures are relevant to forensic practice and are contained in the technical papers of this special issue; the purpose of this paper is also to provide an expanding reference of procedures for future research on facial composites and facial-composite systems. Design/methodology/approach – A detailed account is given of the interaction between practitioner and witness for producing a facial composite. This account involves an overview of the Cognitive Interview (CI) and the Holistic CI (H-CI) techniques used to obtain a description of the face of an offender (target); the authors then describe how this information is used to produce a composite from five popular face-production systems: Sketch, PRO-fit, Electronic Facial Identification Technique (E-FIT), EvoFIT and EFIT-V. An online annex is also made available to provide procedural information for additional composite systems. Practical implications – The work is valuable to forensic practitioners and researchers as a reference for interviewing techniques (involving a CI or an H-CI) and using facial-composite systems. Originality/value – The authors provide an accessible, current guide for how to administer interviewing techniques and how to construct composites from a range of face-production systems.
ISSN:2050-8794
2050-8808
DOI:10.1108/JFP-10-2014-0033