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FOILS AND LINEUPS

Foils are people who are known to be innocent by the authorities and are presented in a lineup or photo parade to test the accuracy of the eyewitness in identifying the suspect. Using foils in lineups is important because if the lineup consists of unknown suspects, there are high chances that the eyewitness might end up identifying an innocent person, moreover, any chance of gaining an insight into the accuracy of eyewitness’s memory would be lost.

 

The use of foils is often referred to as a single-suspect model where other than the foils, an actual suspect is presented in the lineup for the eyewitness to identify. In a literature review by Wells & Turtle (1986), they explained that the use of foils allows for the possibility of the eyewitness making a known error (the eyewitness identifying a foil as the offender). Hence, without foils, there can be no known errors that provide lesser opportunity to detect the fallibility of the witness. 

THINGS TO BE
KEPT IN MIND

The foils must be carefully selected to ensure that they share some physical characteristics with the suspect. If only the actual suspect fits the eyewitness’s description, then it would lead to a bias where the eyewitness would identify the only individual that matches the description and whom the police believe to be the offender. 

The case of Ivan Henry is perhaps the most striking example of how the police charged a suspect from a lineup who looked entirely different from the rest. When brought in for the lineup in 1983 for 17 charges of sexual assault, Henry refused to participate in the lineup fearing police bias as he was the only redheaded person in the lineup, but was forced to, despite his protests. Regardless of all evidence that clearly found that Henry was not linked to any of the crimes, police found him guilty and he was sentenced to an indefinite period of incarceration(confined in prison). He appealed his case after 26 years and was acquitted of all charges in 2010. 

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Source: CBC News

To read up more on Ivan Henry case                                           

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Problems may also increase if the foils are too similar to the suspect because it would make it extremely and unnecessarily difficult for the witness to discriminate among other lineup individuals (Tredoux, 2002). A study by Fitzgerald et al, (2013) has found that as the similarity between the foil and target photographs increases, the accuracy of identification decreases but so far there has been a debate on what constitutes high-moderate-low similarity. 

 

A possible problem with including foils in lineups and photographs is that including individuals who match the description of the eyewitness as foils are difficult and requires time and more often than not, police have to arrange for the lineups with very little time at hand. Thus, special care must be taken when it comes to using foils along with the two aspects mentioned above.

How to improve the validity of line-ups? 

References

  1. Fitzgerald, R. J., Oriet, C., & Price, H. L. (2015). Suspect filler similarity in eyewitness lineups: A literature review and a novel methodology. Law and human behavior, 39(1), 62.

  2. Clark, S. E., Rush, R. A., & Moreland, M. B. (2013). Constructing the lineup: Law, reform, theory, and data. In B. Cutler (Ed.), Reform of eyewitness identification procedures. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association

  3. Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. (2 ed).

  4. Tredoux, C. (2002). A direct measure of facial similarity and its relation to human similarity perceptions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8(3), 180–193

  5. Wells, G. & Turtle, J. W. (1986). Eyewitness Identification: The Importance of Lineup Models. Psychology Bulletin, Vol 99. 

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