Does the facial pattern give individuals a profile of a crime suspect?

• Main Authors: Nathalia de Lima Santos, Camila Silva de Amorim, Camila Barreto Rangel dos Santos, Stefanni Olga Aguiar Sales Lima, Raildo da Silva Coqueiro, Luiz Renato Paranhos, João Pedro Pedrosa Cruz, Lucianne Cople Maia, Matheus Melo Pithon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia 2019-08-01
• Series: Bioscience Journal
• Subjects: face; social perception.; judgment.; crime.
• Online Access: http://www.seer.ufu.br/index.php/biosciencejournal/article/view/46326

To evaluate the influence of mesofacial, brachyfacial and dolichofacial facial patterns on giving an individual the profile of a crime suspect in the eyes of public security agents. This study had a cross-sectional design, conducted with public security agents of both sexes (n=100), where images of facial composites (police sketches) of individuals with different facial patterns (mesofacial, brachyfacial and dolichofacial) were used. With these images in hand, a questionnaire was created, divided into three parts: the first in which all the images were presented together, allowing comparison among them; the second, in which each image was evaluated separately followed by questions and the third that consisted on a visual analog scale that presented a bar with marks going from 0 to 100, where 0 represented the untrustworthy individual, 50 the individual who could be trusted, and 100 a very trustworthy individual. When all the data had been obtained statistical analyses were performed using the Chi-square and Friedman tests. The level of significance adopted was 5% (α=0.05). The dolichofacial individual was associated with security agents as the most prone to commit crimes and became more insecure and distrustful when compared to the mesofacial and brachyfacial individuals (p <0.001). The dolichofacial profile had a negative influence on the judgment of security agents who attributed to it, a character suspected of a crime and a low level of trustworthiness.