Exacerbating Suspect Bias: A Literature Review Examining Specific-Suspect Bias in the Presence of General Impairment in Eyewitness Identification

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the available literature on suspect bias in the context of general impairment to evaluate support for the claim that general impairment exacerbates the effect of suspect bias to increase the risk of eyewitness misidentifications. To provide context for the importance of this issue, the misidentification of Ronald Cotton in the investigation of the assault of Jennifer Thompson-Cannino is discussed. I identified meta-analyses discussing the following suspect bias variables: prior mugshot exposure, exposure to composites, suspect-filler similarity, post-identification feedback, and the use of showups versus lineups to evaluate the literature. Using the articles citing the meta-analyses and cited within the meta-analyses, I found individual studies that manipulated suspect bias, in addition to a general impairment variable. Examples of general impairment variables include age, time delay, lineup presentation, lineup instructions, and options for identification responses. For each suspect-bias variable discussed, the literature provided inconsistent results. Based on the variations found in the data that was evaluated, I recommend that further examination of suspect-bias in the context of general impairment variables be conducted to garner a better, more cohesive understanding of the interaction between these variables.