The other-race effect in eyewitness identification - What do we do about it?

The greater difficulty of other-race relative to own-race facial recognition is one of the most researched issues in eyewitness identification. The authors discuss articles in the March 2001 issue of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law as well as some methodological and interpretational problems regarding demonstrations of the other-race identification effect. In spite of some problems with the literature, they conclude that the other-race identification effect is real and that it is relevant to the criminal justice system. The authors propose a system-variable approach in which other-race identification cases receive special preventive treatment at the time of the identification test rather than after-the-fact attempts to assist triers; of fact. These preventive procedures include using same-race lineup constructors, larger numbers of fillers in other-race cases, dual lineup techniques in other-race cases, or a combination of these procedures.