’Threatening’ faces and beefy bodies do not bias criminal suspect identification

Research shows that there is no bias toward selecting people with muscular bodies or facial characteristics perceived as threatening when identifying criminal suspects in line-ups. Misidentification of innocent defendants plays a significant role in most cases of prisoners later exonerated through DNA evidence Magda Osman We're all familiar with the classic "look" of a movie bad guy: peering through narrowing eyes with a sinister sneer (like countless James Bond villains, including Christopher Walken's memorable Max Zorin in A View to a Kill) or pumped up to cartoon-like dimensions (like the Soviet boxer Drago who growls "I must break you" to Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV). Yet a detailed new study of identifying criminal suspects finds, to the authors' surprise, no bias toward selecting people with threatening facial characteristics or muscular bodies. The study does find, however, that suspects with highly muscled, "threatening" bodies are most accurately identified by eyewitnesses in line-ups.  'No systematic bias'  "These findings suggest that while no systematic bias exists in the recall of criminal bodies, the nature of the body itself and the context in which it is presented can significantly impact identification accuracy," says the research published in the journal Memory & Cognition. "Participant identification accuracy was highest for the most threatening body stimuli high in musculature."   Eyewitness testimony and the identification of suspects lies at the heart of the criminal justice system.