The ELI Database: A New Tool for Eyewitness Research

For a long time, scientists have been studying how well people can identify criminals from lineups. They usually set up a fake crime and then show people a lineup of photos to see if they can pick out the "culprit. " Researchers created something new called the Eyewitness Lineup Identity (ELI) database. This database includes over 200 different people's crime videos and mugshots. They organized these mugshots into lineups with 6, 9, or 12 people. Then, they tested these lineups in an experiment with almost 1, 600 participants. Each person watched a crime video and tried to identify the culprit from a lineup. When the culprit was in the lineup, about 59% of people correctly identified them. But when the culprit wasn't there, almost 30% of people wrongly identified someone else. This shows that the ELI database is useful for research on eyewitness identification. Plus, the large number of crime videos allows researchers to choose varied stimuli for their studies. The database can be accessed for approved research at a specific website.