Facial composite

Facial composite
Facial composite of Paul the Apostle by experts of the LKA NRW, Germany
A facial composite produced by FACES software

A facial composite is a graphical representation of an eyewitness's memory of a face, as recorded by a composite artist. Facial composites are used mainly by police in their investigation of (usually serious) crimes.

Contents

Methods

PhotoFIT generation

Construction of the composite was originally performed by a trained artist, through drawing, sketching, or painting, in consultation with a witness or crime victim. In the 1960s techniques were devised for use by those less artistically skilled, employing interchangeable templates of separate facial features, such as "Photofit" in the UK and Smith & Wesson's "Identi-Kit" in the US. In the last two decades, a number of computer based facial composite systems have been introduced, amongst the most widely used systems are "Identi-Kit 2000", FACES, and E-FIT. In the U.S. the FBI maintains that hand-drawing is its preferred method for constructing a facial composite. Many other police agencies, however, use software, since suitable artistic talent is often not available.

Evolutionary systems

Until quite recently, the facial composite systems used by international police forces were exclusively based on a construction methodology in which individual facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, etc.) are selected one at a time from a large database and then electronically ’overlaid’ to make the composite image. Such systems are often referred to as feature-based since they essentially rely on the selection of individual features in isolation. However, after a long period of research and development work conducted largely within British Universities, systems based on a rather different principle are finding increasing use by police forces.[1][2][3] These systems may be broadly described as holistic or global in that they primarily attempt to create a likeness to the suspect through an evolutionary mechanism in which a witness’s response to groups of complete faces (not just features) converges towards an increasingly accurate image. Three such systems have come from academic beginnings, EFIT-V from the University of Kent, EvoFIT from Stirling and Central Lancashire University, and ID from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Research

A general review of research into the evaluation of mechanical template techniques may be found in Davies and Valetine (2006) [4] A review of research into more modern 'feature' and 'recognition' systems, and into methods for improving the effectiveness of composites, may be found in Frowd et al. (2008)[5] and (2009).[6]

The systems used in the UK have been subjected to a number of academic studies. These have typically shown that E-FIT and PRO-fit produce composites that are correctly named, either immediately or a few hours after construction, about 20% of the time (see Brace et al. (2000),[7] Bruce et al. (2002),[8] Davies et al. (2000)[9] and Frowd et al. (2005)[10]). When witnesses in these studies are required to wait two days before constructing a composite, which matches real use more closely, naming falls to a few percent at best (e.g. Frowd et al. (2005)[11] and (2007)[12][13]). The reason for the low level of naming from these systems appears to be that witnesses are unable to accurately construct the internal features of the face after long delays, the region that is important for recognition by another person later (Frowd et al. (2007)[14]).

Evolutionary systems show a marked improvement in accuracy. In academic trials, research on a fairly-recent version of the EvoFIT system has shown correct naming levels of about 25% after a 2-day delay(see Frowd et al. (2010)[15]) -- using more-recent techniques, the performance of EvoFIT has now approximately doubled to 45% correct naming (Frowd et al. (in press)[16]). Similarly in extensive field use EFIT-V has shown a 40% naming rate over an 18 month period with 1000 interviews.[17] The EvoFIT system has been similarly evaluated in formal police field-trials.[18] These evaluations have reported a much higher naming rate for EvoFIT composites but, using the latest interview techniques, an arrest rate of nearly 40%. A recent case whereby an EvoFIT directly led to the arrest of a serial rapist may be found at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019031/Evo-fit-New-facial-identification-technology-helps-catch-rapist-Asim-Javed.html. Accompanying the development of EvoFIT has been new approaches in the type of interview administered to eyewitnesses prior to face construction (e.g. Frowd et al. (2008)[19]).

Usage

Facial composite of Aafia Siddiqui, created by FBI for a wanted poster[20]

While the classic use of the facial composite is the citizen recognizing the face as an acquaintance, there are other ways where a facial composite can prove useful. The facial composite can contribute in law enforcement in a number of ways:

  1. Identifying the suspect in a wanted poster.
  2. Additional evidence against a suspect.[citation needed]
  3. Assisting investigation in checking leads.
  4. Warning vulnerable population against serial offenders.

Facial composites of various types have been used extensively in those television programmes which aim to reconstruct major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public, such as "America's Most Wanted" in the US and "Crimewatch" in the UK.

Notable cases

Some important criminal cases where facial composites have assisted in identifying the perpetrator:

References

  1. ^ Frowd, C.D., Hancock, P.J.B., Bruce, V., McIntyre, A., Pitchford, M., Atkins, R., et al. (2010). Giving crime the 'evo': catching criminals using EvoFIT facial composites. In G. Howells, K. Sirlantzis, A. Stoica, T. Huntsberger and A.T. Arslan (Eds.) 2010 IEEE International Conference on Emerging Security Technologies (pp. 36-43). ISBN 978-0-7695-4175-4.
  2. ^ S.J. Gibson, C.J. Solomon, M.I.S. Maylin and C. Clark. New methodology in facial composite construction: from theory to practice. in Int. J.Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2009, 2, 156-168.
  3. ^ Solomon, C.; Gibson, S. & Maylin, M. A New Computational Methodology for the Construction of Forensic, Facial Composites, Computational Forensics, Springer-Verlag LNCS, 2009, 5718/2009, 67-77.
  4. ^ Davies, G.M. and Valentine, T., 2006, Facial composites: Forensic utility and psychological research, in "Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology", R.C.L. Lindsay, D.F. Ross, J.D. Read and M.P. Toglia (Eds) vol 2, pp59-96, Mahwah, NJ, Erlbaum.
  5. ^ Frowd, C.D., Bruce, V., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2008). Changing the face of criminal identification. The Psychologist, 21, 670-672.
  6. ^ Frowd, C.D., Bruce, V., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2009). Evolving facial composite systems. Forensic Update, 98, 25-32.
  7. ^ Brace, N., Pike. G., and Kemp, R., 2000, Investigating E-FIT using famous faces, in "Forensic Psychology and Law", A. Czerederecka, T. Jaskiewicz-Obydzinska and J. Wojcikiewicz (Eds) pp 272 - 276, Krakow Institute of Forensic Research Publishers.
  8. ^ Bruce, V., Ness, H., Hancock, P.J.B. Newman, C. and Rarity J., 2002, Four heads are betre than one: Combining face composites yields improvements in face likeness, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 894-902.
  9. ^ Davies, G.M., Van Der Willie P. and Morrison, L.J., 2000, Facial composite production: A comparison of mechanical and computer driven systems, Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 119-124
  10. ^ Frowd, C.D., Carson, D., Ness, H., Richardson, J., Morrison, L., McLanaghan, S., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2005). A forensically valid comparison of facial composite systems. Psychology, Crime & Law, 11, 33-52.
  11. ^ Frowd, C.D., Carson, D., Ness, H., McQuiston, D., Richardson, J., Baldwin , H. and Hancock, P.J.B., 2005, Contemporary composite techniuqes: the impact of a forensically-relevant target delay, Legal and Criminological Psychology, 10, 63-81
  12. ^ Frowd, C.D., Bruce, V., Ness, H., Bowie, L., Thomson-Bogner, C., Paterson, J., McIntyre, A., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2007). Parallel approaches to composite production. Ergonomics, 50, 562-585.
  13. ^ Frowd, C.D., McQuiston-Surrett, D., Anandaciva, S., Ireland, C.E., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2007). An evaluation of US systems for facial composite production. Ergonomics, 50, 1987–1998.
  14. ^ Frowd, C.D., Bruce, V., McIntyre, A., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2007). The relative importance of external and internal features of facial composites. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 61-77.
  15. ^ Frowd, C.D., Pitchford, M., Bruce, V., Jackson, S., Hepton, G., Greenall, M., McIntyre, A., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2010). The psychology of face construction: giving evolution a helping hand. Applied Cognitive Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1662.
  16. ^ Frowd, C.D., Skelton F., Atherton, C., Pitchford, M., Hepton, G., Holden, L., McIntyre, A., & Hancock, P.J.B. (in press). Recovering faces from memory: the distracting influence of external facial features. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
  17. ^ Solomon, C.; Gibson, S. & Maylin, M. Generation of Facial Composites for Criminal Investigations, chapter in Facial Identification, Edited by Chris Rynn, Cambridge University Press in press, 5718/2009, 67-77
  18. ^ Frowd, C.D., Hancock, P.J.B., Bruce, V., Skelton, F.C., Atherton, C., Nelson, L., et al. (2011). Catching more offenders with EvoFIT facial composites: lab research and police field trials. Global Journal of Human Social Science, 11, 46-58.
  19. ^ Frowd, C.D., Bruce, V., Smith, A., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2008). Improving the quality of facial composites using a holistic cognitive interview. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 14, 276 – 287.
  20. ^ Scroggins, Deborah (March 1, 2005). "The Most Wanted Woman in the World" (Limited access, subscription required). Vogue, reprinted by 'Access My Library'. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-6507794_ITM. 
  21. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019031/Evo-fit-New-facial-identification-technology-helps-catch-rapist-Asim-Javed.html

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