In this paper, we heed this call and examine whether discrimination accuracy can be improved by enabling witnesses to see the lineup faces from the same angle that the perpetrator’s face was seen during the crime. The National Academy of Sciences recently called for the development of new technology to improve lineup identification accuracy 3. Lineup members are shown from the shoulders up, facing forward, even if a witness viewed the perpetrator from a different angle at the time of the crime (e.g., saw only their profile view). In many countries (e.g., the US, Germany, Canada, Australia), lineups consist of static photographs 1, 2. The ability of the eyewitness to distinguish the presence or absence of the perpetrator is known as discrimination accuracy. The goal of the eyewitness is to identify the perpetrator if the perpetrator is present in the lineup (known as a correct identification) or to identify no one if the perpetrator is absent from the lineup (known as a correct rejection). A lineup contains the police suspect-who may or may not be the perpetrator-embedded among ‘fillers’, who are individuals who look similar to the police suspect and are known by the police to be innocent. Worldwide, witnesses are given lineups to help the police identify criminal perpetrators.
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