Witness artistic rendition and its impacts on visual memory for forensic facial composite creation

Purpose In the absence of photographic or other identifying evidence, composites provide crucial intelligence in police investigations, though their accuracy depends on a witness’s facial memory and recall. The purpose of this study is to investigate a novel technique aimed at increasing face recall and composite effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach In this study, participants viewed a facial photograph, recalled the face using a cognitive interview and created a composite with a forensic artist. One group of participants (control) who worked with an artist, the usual procedure, were compared with another group (experimental) who sketched the face themselves prior to the cognitive interview. Witness memory was then measured by assessing the number of “units of information” produced during free recall of the face, as well as the identifiability of the composites, evaluated by an additional group of participants who attempted to name the sketched composites. Findings Results showed, relative to the control group, that the experimental witness group provided more detailed descriptions of the face and that this improvement to memory led to the creation of more identifiable composites. Therefore, the findings suggest that this artistic rendition technique enhances both the cognitive interview and the accuracy of forensic facial composites. It was also found that participants’ self-rated measures of drawing and observant behaviour were positively related to the accuracy of the participants’ composites. Practical implications This simple technique could be implemented by police forces with minimal effort and impact on budget. It presents a straightforward and cost-efficient way to increase the identifiability of composite images without the need for additional lengthy training for forensic practitioners. Originality/value Results suggest that the witness artistic rendition technique represents a novel, low-cost and simple method that could be used to increase composite accuracy.