The Reliability of Facial Recognition of Deceased Persons on Photographs |
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| Authors: | Zuzana Caplova MSc Zuzana Obertova PhD Daniele M Gibelli MD PhD Debora Mazzarelli MSc Tony Fracasso MD Peter Vanezis OBE PhD Chiarella Sforza MD PhD Cristina Cattaneo MD PhD |
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| Institution: | 1. LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy;2. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy;3. University Center of Legal Medicine, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland;4. Cameron Forensic Medical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK |
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| Abstract: | In humanitarian emergencies, such as the current deceased migrants in the Mediterranean, antemortem documentation needed for identification may be limited. The use of visual identification has been previously reported in cases of mass disasters such as Thai tsunami. This pilot study explores the ability of observers to match unfamiliar faces of living and dead persons and whether facial morphology can be used for identification. A questionnaire was given to 41 students and five professionals in the field of forensic identification with the task to choose whether a facial photograph corresponds to one of the five photographs in a lineup and to identify the most useful features used for recognition. Although the overall recognition score did not significantly differ between professionals and students, the median scores of 78.1% and 80.0%, respectively, were too low to consider this method as a reliable identification method and thus needs to be supported by other means. |
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| Keywords: | forensic science forensic anthropology facial recognition visual identification dead migrants postmortem identification |
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