A facial composite is an image created by an artist or a composite-system operator from a crime witness’s or victim’s description of an offender. The aim is to make an image that resembles the person remembered. Memory can be fallible, so a composite is not expected to be a perfect portrait. It should be anatomically sound and clear enough to communicate useful information.
An important part of creating a composite is the investigative interview, often called the Cognitive Interview. It gives the interviewer a framework for helping someone recall an event. Each interview is different: the witness should be able to describe the person at their own pace, with the artist using simple, unbiased prompts.
People vary in their memory and in how easily they describe what they remember. Composite accuracy therefore varies too. A composite cannot establish a suspect’s identity by itself, but it may help an investigation develop a lead. Composites can be hand-drawn, made digitally or produced with computer systems such as E-FIT or EvoFIT. I have experience with both drawn and computer-assisted methods.
Research
My MSc Forensic Art research project in 2010 explored whether a Cognitive Interview could be carried out over the internet using a live webcam. Participants viewed an unfamiliar face briefly and returned for an interview 24 hours later. The study examined their experience of the interaction; survey results suggested that this approach could work in a laboratory setting.
I later compared interviewing by Skype with face-to-face interviews in research at the University of Surrey. Forty-two participants viewed a still image and returned the next day to be interviewed. Composites from face-to-face interviews received higher likeness ratings and performed better in a sorting task. The difference was small in practical terms but statistically significant. Further work could test recognition in a more realistic task using familiar identities.
The subject images used in these studies were supplied by the City of Sydney and drawn from published facial-stimulus databases.
Selected publications and presentations
- Kuivaniemi-Smith, H. J., Nash, R. A., Brodie, E. R., Mahoney, G., & Rynn, C. (2014). “Producing facial composite sketches in remote Cognitive Interviews: A preliminary investigation.” Psychology, Crime & Law, 20, 389–406.
- Fodarella, C., Kuivaniemi-Smith, H., Gawrylowicz, J., & Frowd, C. D. (2015). “Forensic procedures for facial-composite construction.” Journal of Forensic Practice, 17(4), 259–270.
- Kuivaniemi-Smith, H. (2013). “Facial Composites — Important Intelligence.” Journal of the Association of British Investigators, 23–24.
I have also delivered workshops for MSc Forensic Art students at the University of Dundee and presented work at conferences and seminars on investigative interviewing and facial composites.