A new atlas for the evaluation of facial features: advantages, limits, and applicability (original) (raw)
THE EFFICIENCY OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS IN FORENSIC FACIAL ANALYSIS
This study aims to discuss the limitations in the facial analysis of closed-circuit television (CCTV) images, including the use of morphological and anthropometric methods, and to analyze the level of effectiveness of CCTV images, taking into account any negative factors that may affect the forensic anthropologist/forensic facial examination expert’s conclusion. Ten forensic experts from different forensic laboratories and universities participated in this research. The experts were asked to compare the query CCTV images, which were of varied quality, with the target images. The results suggest that a high error rate and low-level assessment are provided by low quality CCTV images, whereas morphological and anthropometric analysis can be performed more accurately and correctly with the high level of assessment provided by moderate/reasonable quality CCTV images. To use morphological and anthropometric methods efficiently and take maximum advantage of the use of security cameras in forensic facial identification, it is suggested to set a CCTV recording standard for high quality recordings.
European Journal of Anatomy, 2021
Personal identification in legal proceedings and social matters consists of the description, comparison and correct attribution of some relevant biological individualising characteristics. Determination of an identity is generally achieved through construction of the biological profile (i.e. ancestry, sex, age, stature) and comparison of the individualising characteristics, to obtain a positive match. Although present techniques are mainly focused on identification of unknown decedents, due to more recent proliferation of personal, public and commercial installation of video surveillance systems and to image capture on mobile phones, the identification of living persons through video and images has become a major source of evidence in criminal investigations and at trials. This paper retrospectively evaluates the contributions of anthropological reports to the resolution of personal identification cases at the Operative Unit of Anthropology of the ‘G. d’Annunzio’ University of Chieti–Pescara, Italy, between 1996 and 2019. Of the 476 forensic facial comparisons carried out, for 151 of them (31.7%) it was not possible to carry out any facial imaging analysis due to diverse factors that affected the images and facial features of the subjects being analysed and compared. Of the remaining comparisons (325; 68.3%), the facial imaging techniques used for identification from video recordings and images were: morphological analysis (174; 53.5%); metric analysis (1; 0.3%); combination of morphological and metric analysis (143; 44.0%); photographic superimposition in combination with morphological and metric analysis (4; 1.2%); and facial approximation (3; 0.9%). The aim of this retrospective analysis was a critical evaluation of the advantages and limitations of the different methods used for personal identification in casework. Despite the challenges of facial imaging for human identification, these techniques represent a very important tool in forensic investigations.
The present study describes the morphological variation of a large database of facial photographs. The database comprises frontal (386 female, 764 males) and lateral (312 females, 666 males) images of Mexican individuals aged 14-69 years that were obtained under controlled conditions. We used geometric morphometric methods and multivariate statistics to describe the phenotypic variation within the dataset as well as the variation regarding sex and age groups. In addition, we explored the correlation between facial traits in both views. We found a spectrum of variation that encompasses broad and narrow faces. In frontal view, the latter is associated to a longer nose, a thinner upper lip, a shorter lower face and to a longer upper face, than individuals with broader faces. In lateral view, anteroposteriorly shortened faces are associated to a longer profile and to a shortened helix, than individuals with longer faces. Sexual dimorphism is found in all age groups except for individuals above 39 years old in lateral view. Likewise, age-related changes are significant for both sexes, except for females above 29 years old in both views. Finally, we observed that the pattern of covariation between views differs in males and females mainly in the thickness of the upper lip and the angle of the facial profile and the auricle. The results of this study could contribute to the forensic practices as a complement for the construction of biological profiles, for example, to improve facial reconstruction procedures. ß
Forensic Facial Comparison: Current Status, Limitations, and Future Directions
Biology
Global escalation of crime has necessitated the use of digital imagery to aid the identification of perpetrators. Forensic facial comparison (FFC) is increasingly employed, often relying on poor-quality images. In the absence of standardized criteria, especially in terms of video recordings, verification of the methodology is needed. This paper addresses aspects of FFC, discussing relevant terminology, investigating the validity and reliability of the FISWG morphological feature list using a new South African database, and advising on standards for CCTV equipment. Suboptimal conditions, including poor resolution, unfavorable angle of incidence, color, and lighting, affected the accuracy of FFC. Morphological analysis of photographs, standard CCTV, and eye-level CCTV showed improved performance in a strict iteration analysis, but not when using analogue CCTV images. Therefore, both strict and lenient iterations should be conducted, but FFC must be abandoned when a strict iteration pe...
Understanding the discrimination power of facial regions in forensic casework
2013 International Workshop on Biometrics and Forensics (IWBF 2013), 2013
This paper focuses on automatic facial regions extraction for forensic applications. Forensic examiners compare different facial areas of face images obtained from both uncontrolled and controlled environments taken from the suspect. In this work, we study and compare the discriminative capabilities of 15 facial regions considered in forensic practice such as full face, nose, eye, eyebrow, mouth, etc. This study is useful because it can statistically support the current practice of forensic facial comparison. It is also of interest to biometrics because a more robust general-purpose face recognition system can be built by fusing the similarity scores obtained from the comparison of different individual parts of the face. To analyse the discrimination power of each facial region, we have randomly defined three population subsets of 200 European subjects (male, female and mixed) from MORPH database. First facial landmarks are automatically located, checked and corrected and then 15 forensic facial regions are extracted and considered for the study. In all cases, the performance of the full face (faceISOV region) is higher than the one achieved for the rest of facial regions. It is very interesting to note that the nose region has a very significant discrimination efficiency by itself and similar to the full face performance.
Forensic facial comparison: issues of admissibility in the development of novel analytical technique
Journal of Forensic Sciences, 58(4), 859-65. ISSN 0022-1198 (Print), 1556-4029 (Online) doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.12127, 2013
The London Riots of August 2011 were notable for the prominence of closed-circuit television (CCTV) images of offenders in investigation and prosecution, and in social media and news publicity. The systematic use of CCTV footage in criminal investigations was not new, however. London's Metropolitan Police had pioneered specialist units tasked with acting upon image evidence in the five years prior to the riots, an approach deemed so effective it was termed the ‘Third Forensics’. This article discusses the significance of this claim and its implications for the justice system. The use of images in the investigation of the riots was highly effective, suggesting claims for substantially improved impact in investigation and prosecution are valid, and earlier scepticism regarding both utility and surveillance society agendas in public area CCTV studies was justified. Systematic procedural use of CCTV footage is not new, however, as demonstrated following riots in Vancouver, Canada, and earlier in Bradford, UK. Furthermore, identification in the Third Forensics is eyewitness recognition, and not scientifically or technologically similar to fingerprints or DNA. The article suggests this difference affects risks of prejudice and miscarriages of justice, and profiling of individuals and social categories images appear to represent. The article concludes that while forensic investigation of CCTV images may not meet scientific criteria of a third forensic discipline, it defines nascent development in police investigation, where improvements in procedure have combined with proliferating CCTV systems and social media, leading to a novel set of circumstances raising a number of unexplored issues of such significance that ‘Third Forensics’ is a suitable term to use to symbolise them.