Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes
In the United States, 20% of all violent crime is committed by multiple perpetrators. Despite the prevalence of multiple-perpetrator crimes, most published eyewitness research uses a single-perpetrator paradigm: that is, witnesses view a crime committed by a single perpetrator whom they must recogni...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Psychology
2019
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613186738356224 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Nortje, Alicia |
| author2 | Tredoux, Colin |
| author_browse | Nortje, Alicia Tredoux, Colin |
| author_facet | Tredoux, Colin Nortje, Alicia |
| author_sort | Nortje, Alicia |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | In the United States, 20% of all violent crime is committed by multiple perpetrators. Despite the prevalence of multiple-perpetrator crimes, most published eyewitness research uses a single-perpetrator paradigm: that is, witnesses view a crime committed by a single perpetrator whom they must recognise later. Multiple-perpetrator crimes, however, present with several problems. Police procedure for administering multiple-suspect parades is poorly defined. Furthermore, eyewitnesses must make multiple identifications, and are tasked with a unique memory problem of perpetrator-role assignment. I studied these problems in the following ways: (a) a survey among South African detectives (N = 75) to investigate how multiple suspect parades are administered in practice; (b) two face recognition experiments where the number of face-attribute pairs was manipulated at encoding to investigate the effect of set size on both item recognition (for attributes and faces), and associative memory performance (i.e., matching identity to role; N = 70, and N = 67); (c) an eyewitness experiment where participants studied a simulated crime committed by up to 10 perpetrators whom they had to recognise later (N = 200); and (d) a set of simulations testing a revised version of the Interactive Activation and Competition network proposed by Burton et al. (1990) as a computational account of the memory difficulties experienced by eyewitnesses to multiple-perpetrator crimes. Overall, the results suggest that associative memory is particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of set size, and that role-players in law and psychology should consider the implications of these difficulties in court and the laboratory. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29506 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:08.355Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateRange | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | Department of Psychology |
| publisherStr | Department of Psychology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29506 The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes Nortje, Alicia Tredoux, Colin Vredeveldt, Annelies Psychology In the United States, 20% of all violent crime is committed by multiple perpetrators. Despite the prevalence of multiple-perpetrator crimes, most published eyewitness research uses a single-perpetrator paradigm: that is, witnesses view a crime committed by a single perpetrator whom they must recognise later. Multiple-perpetrator crimes, however, present with several problems. Police procedure for administering multiple-suspect parades is poorly defined. Furthermore, eyewitnesses must make multiple identifications, and are tasked with a unique memory problem of perpetrator-role assignment. I studied these problems in the following ways: (a) a survey among South African detectives (N = 75) to investigate how multiple suspect parades are administered in practice; (b) two face recognition experiments where the number of face-attribute pairs was manipulated at encoding to investigate the effect of set size on both item recognition (for attributes and faces), and associative memory performance (i.e., matching identity to role; N = 70, and N = 67); (c) an eyewitness experiment where participants studied a simulated crime committed by up to 10 perpetrators whom they had to recognise later (N = 200); and (d) a set of simulations testing a revised version of the Interactive Activation and Competition network proposed by Burton et al. (1990) as a computational account of the memory difficulties experienced by eyewitnesses to multiple-perpetrator crimes. Overall, the results suggest that associative memory is particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of set size, and that role-players in law and psychology should consider the implications of these difficulties in court and the laboratory. 2019-02-13T13:09:16Z 2019-02-13T13:09:16Z 2018 2019-02-13T12:48:42Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29506 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Psychology Nortje, Alicia The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes |
| title_full | The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes |
| title_fullStr | The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes |
| title_full_unstemmed | The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes |
| title_short | The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes |
| title_sort | butcher the baker the candlestick maker investigating facial recognition for multiple perpetrator crimes |
| topic | Psychology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29506 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nortjealicia thebutcherthebakerthecandlestickmakerinvestigatingfacialrecognitionformultipleperpetratorcrimes AT nortjealicia butcherthebakerthecandlestickmakerinvestigatingfacialrecognitionformultipleperpetratorcrimes |