Limiting lineup anxiety

by Nicole Findlay

A witness concealed in a small room and peering through a two way mirror as a suspect group shuffles into an adjacent room is how most of us envision a criminal lineup procedure unfolding. Pervasive in crime shows and Hollywood film, this simultaneous lineup was one of two methods used by police, until Joanna Pozzulo developed a third option.

Pozzulo, forensic psychologist with the Department of Psychology, collaborates with Canadian and American agencies to improve their chances of getting the right bad guy.

In Ontario, police use sequential lineups in which witnesses are shown a series of photos, one at a time, and must determine whether or not that individual is the perpetrator before moving on to the next image.

Effective with adult witnesses, the procedure is difficult for children. Pozzulo believes that children feel compelled to make an identification even in cases where the actual perpetrator is not in the lineup.

Pozzulo developed the elimination lineup procedure to reduce the risk of child witnesses making false identifications. In the process, she discovered it improved the identification process for a variety of witnesses.

After viewing a short video depicting a boy stealing bike, the children are asked to describe what they saw. They are then shown a series of photos of boys who may or may not have been the “bike thief.”

“The elimination lineup starts with showing a witness the lineup in a simultaneous format. The witness is asked, ‘who looks most like the culprit?’” Pozzulo explains. “Once that person is selected, all other photos are removed, and the witness is asked, ‘is this the culprit?’”

Pozzulo says that when children move through the process in two stages they “produce accuracy rates similar to those by adults.”

Through her Laboratory for Child Forensic Psychology, Pozzulo collaborates with the Police Development Centre at Algonquin College.

The Laboratory for Child Forensic Psychology was made possible by funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Fund, and Carleton University.