Crime-related photographs do not improve eyewitnesses’ ability to detect the culprit’s presence within the lineup

In two experiments, we tested whether reinstating elements of a crime by presenting crime-related photographs during police lineups increases eyewitnesses’ ability to detect the culprit’s presence in the lineup. Participants viewed a staged-crime video and completed multiple lineups presented either with or without additional crime-related photographs. In Experiment 1, a photograph of the crime scene was provided to help reinstate the context of the crime. In Experiment 2, photographs of clothes worn by the culprits and the victim during the crime were provided in addition to the crime-scene photograph. Providing crime-related photographs did not improve culprit-presence detection compared to lineups without such photographs. In Experiment 2, culprit-presence detection even decreased slightly in the photographs-present condition in comparison to the photographs-absent condition. The probability of guessing-based selection remained unaffected by the presence or absence of the crime-related photographs in both experiments. These results indicate that culprit-presence detection does not benefit from including crime-related photographs in lineups. Thus, the present findings support the validity of common police practice to present only suspect and filler photographs in lineups.