Eyewitness identification in child witnesses on the autism spectrum. (October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wilcock, Rachel; Crane, Laura; Hobson, Zoe; Nash, Gilly; Kirke-Smith, Mimi; Henry, Lucy A.
• Is Part Of: Research in autism spectrum disorders. Volume 66(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-10
• Subjects: Autism -- Eyewitness memory -- Identification lineup -- Face memory -- Child witnesses; Autism spectrum disorders -- Periodicals; 616.85882005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2019.05.007
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-9467

Abstract

Highlights: Children with and without autism watched a mock crime event involving two actors. A week later, they were asked to identify these 'perpetrators' from identification lineups. We found that autistic children performed fairly similarly to the non-autistic children. Yet identification performance in both groups was low. Future research should identify how to support identification performance in autistic and non-autistic children. Abstract: Background: Although there is increasing interest in the capabilities of children with autism at different stages of the criminal justice process, there is little research into how well this group perform when asked to identify perpetrators from identification lineups. This is despite theoretical and empirical literature suggesting that autistic children experience face recognition memory difficulties. Method: As part of a broader study into eyewitness memory skills, 50 children with autism and 162 children with typical development (TD) (all with IQs > 69) watched a mock crime event (either live or on a video) involving two male perpetrators. One week later, their eyewitness identification skills were compared, with children asked to identify the perpetrators from two ecologically valid video lineups. The children were also assessed on a standardised face memory task. Results: When asked to identify perpetrators in the video lineups, in many respects the autistic children performed at an equivalent level to the TD children. This was despite the TD children outperforming the autistic children on the standardized face memory task. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that group differences between autistic and TD children may not always emerge on an ecologically valid, real world eyewitness identification lineup task, despite autistic children showing poorer performance on a standardized face memory task. However, as identification performance in both groups was low, it remains important for future research to identify how to scaffold eyewitness identification performance in both children with and without an autism diagnosis.