USING MUG SHOTS TO FIND SUSPECTS

The authors examined the use of mug shots as an investigative tool. Da ta are reported from 3 staged-crime experiments (N = 365) exploring th e effects on mug-shot selections of number of faces seen before the co nfederate criminal's, of biased procedures, and of sorting pictures to fit the description of the criminal. The confederate was frequently s elected from mug shots, and few innocent people were selected. Selecti ons of faces declined with number of pictures viewed before the confed erate's. Biased instructions and clothing bias increased choices of in nocent people but not of guilty people. More innocent faces were selec ted when the pictures matched the confederate's description than when the pictures were not sorted to match the confederate's description. V iewing mug shots had no effect on subsequent identifications in lineup s. Implications for police use of mug shots are discussed.