A Problem with Double-Blind Photospread Procedures: Photospread Administrators Use One Eyewitness's Confidence to Influence the Identification of Another Eyewitness

In Experiment 1, photospread administrators (PAs, N = 50) showed a target-absent photospread to a confederate eyewitness (CW), who was randomly assigned to identify one photo with either high or low confidence. PAs subsequently administered the same target-absent photospread to participant eyewitnesses (PWs, N = 50), all of whom had viewed a live staged crime 1 week earlier. CWs were rated by the PAs as significantly more confident in the high-confidence condition versus low-confidence condition. More importantly, the confidence of the CW affected the identification decision of the PW. In the low-confidence condition, the photo identified by the CW was identified by the PW significantly more than the other photos; there was no significant difference in photo choice in the high-confidence condition. In spite of the obvious influence exerted in the low-confidence condition, observers were not able to detect bias in the photospread procedures. A second experiment was conducted to test a post-hoc explanation for the results of Experiment 1: PAs exerted influence in the low-confidence condition because they perceived the task as more difficult for the eyewitness than in the high-confidence condition. Independent observers (N = 84) rated the difficulty of the confederate's task as higher in the low-confidence condition compared with the high-confidence condition, suggesting that expectations of task difficulty might be driving the effect observed in Experiment 1. Results support recommendations for double-blind photospreads and emphasize that the same investigator should not administer photo lineups to multiple eyewitnesses in an investigation.     

Teenage Pregnancy and Neoliberal Subjectivity in Mexican Television Series La Rosa de Guadalupe

This article examines teenage pregnancy narratives in Televisa's La Rosa de Guadalupe, Mexico's most-watched television programme. Adolescent pregnancy in Mexico is considered a pressing social and political challenge, cutting across broader efforts by the state to regulate population growth and lower maternal morbidity during the second half of the twentieth century. The series models personal sexual responsibility and ‘good’ motherhood yet simultaneously confirms the Virgen de Guadalupe as intercessor in complex social issues in Mexico. Didacticism towards responsibilisation confirms modern, neoliberal subjectivity, but obscures the socio-economic conditions within which those complex social issues are embedded – conditions themselves shaped by neoliberal policy.     

Reality and rumour: the grey areas of international development in Guatemala

In Guatemala, development projects and practitioners are frequently associated with rumours. These rumours, often related to suspicions of ulterior motives, have a high degree of potency and endurance. This paper investigates this relationship between development and rumour, focusing on some of the more prevalent rumours including robaniños (baby-stealers), religious rumours regarding the Antichrist and rumours related to vaccinations and sterilisation. As a counter to perspectives which essentialise a lack of education in the perpetuation of rumours, I explore how they become devices through which one can understand power imbalances and everyday violence(s) inherent in many development projects and processes.     

Human Rights in a Post‐Brexit UK

This special issue was written to reflect on the current role of human rights in the United Kingdom, seventy years after the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights are explored by the authors in this issue from a wide variety of perspectives. Some authors are critical of the failure of the state to implement human rights principles in practice; others lament how human rights often appear of little relevance to most people’s lives in the UK. The overall message, however, remains consistent: a human rights framework brings many positive elements to our country, ensuring it is a society where individuals, no matter their actions or characteristics, are treated with dignity.