The own race bias in child and adolescent witnesses: Evidence from video lineups.

C Harvard, Joyce Humphries, A Memon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (journal)peer-review

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Abstract

The present study investigated the own-race bias in British school children using an eyewitness paradigm. 319 participants viewed films of two similar staged thefts, one that depicted a Caucasian culprit and the other an Asian culprit and then after a delay of 2-3 days, viewed a lineup for each culprit. 176 of the participants were Caucasian and 143 were Asian. There were also two age groups, 164 were aged 7-9 years and 152 were 12-14 years. There was a significant own race bias for the Caucasian participants from both age groups, that resulted in more correct identifications for the own race culprit from target present lineups and more false identifications for the target absent lineups. The Asian participants from both age groups showed no own race bias and performed equally accurately for culprits of both races. The measures of interracial contact were associated with correct responses for other race targets and also revealed that the majority of Caucasian participants in the current sample had very little contact with Asians, whereas the majority of Asian participants had high levels of contact with Caucasians.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Police Science and Management
Early online date25 Sept 2017
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 25 Sept 2017

Keywords

  • lineup identification
  • eyewitness memory
  • child witness
  • adolescent witness
  • video lineup
  • own race bias

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