The Risk Posed to an Innocent Suspect Who Has a Tattoo Similar to the Real Perpetrator of a Crime.

Abstract

Three hypotheses were tested in the present study: there would be more false identifications when a tattoo is in the same location compared with a similar location; there would be more false identifications when the suspect had the same tattoo compared with a similar tattoo; that matching the appearance of a tattoo would lead to more innocent suspect identifications than matching the location of a tattoo. None of our hypotheses were supported, meaning that having a tattoo that is slightly different to that of the perpetrator, will not protect an innocent suspect from identification any more than when the tattoo is exactly the same. Similarly, having a tattoo in a slightly different location from that of the perpetrator, will result in the same amount of false identifications if the tattoo was in exactly the same place. Partipcipants were significantly more confident in their decisions in the similar tattoo, similar location condition compared with the same tattoo, same location condition. Meaning that confidence is higher in the condition in which the tattoo differs most from when it was seen on the perpetrator. Also, participants in the similar tattoo, same location condition were significantly more confident than the same tattoo, similar location condition.