Worldwide, police test eyewitness memory using a lineup, containing an innocent or guilty suspect and several fillers. How similar-looking the fillers should be to the suspect has not been sufficiently answered, possibly due to a lack of guiding cognitive models. We made predictions using a new signal-detection model assuming feature-matching logic and discounting of shared features. Participants encoded a perpetrator with a distinctive feature. In two pre-registered experiments, we tested how replicating a similar but non-identical feature across the fillers (low feature-similarity replication) influenced identification accuracy compared to replicating an identical feature (high feature-similarity replication), and an unfair condition in which the feature was not replicated. In Experiment 1 (N = 4,915), the innocent suspect's feature matched the description of the perpetrator's. As predicted, low compared to high feature-similarity replication increased the hit rate without affecting the false alarm rate and increased ability to discriminate innocent from guilty suspects. In Experiment 2 (N = 1,964), the innocent suspect's feature was identical to the perpetrator's and, as predicted, the effect on discriminability was reversed. The model provides a useful theoretical framework, and police should not needlessly match features across a lineup that could be useful cues to identity, as this may harm witness performance.

Medico-legal services are essential for supporting survivors of sexual violence and facilitating access to justice. Unfortunately, their provision remains a challenge in many low-resource settings. In Kenya, high prevalence of sexual violence contrasts sharply with low rates of case progression and conviction, yet much of the existing evidence is drawn from intervention studies or specific health facilities, limiting understanding of routine medical practice for the general population. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of medico-legal professionals on barriers to delivering effective medico-legal services to sexual violence survivors in both urban and rural Kenya. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using either semi-structured or small group interviews with 21 medico-legal professionals, including clinicians, lawyers, and police officers. Participants were recruited through professional networks and a non-governmental organisation, known as the Wangu Kanja Foundation (WKF). Interviews were conducted in English either online or in person, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using the Framework Method with an inductive thematic approach. Five key themes emerged: professional journey, operating outside of the norm, case details and procedure, limiting factors, and personal reflections. Participants reported inadequate formal training in sexual violence response, reliance on informal or NGO-led training, and significant shortages of forensic and psychosocial resources. Service provision was constrained by weak inter-sectoral collaboration, investigation and prosecution delays within the justice system, and public misconceptions about evidence preservation. Provider bias, including victim-blaming attitudes, and substantial emotional burden among professionals were also evident. Medico-legal professionals in Kenya face multiple interrelated barriers, including inadequate training, limited resources, and systemic constraints that hinder effective handling for sexual violence survivors and contribute to case attrition. Integrating sexual violence training into formal professional education, strengthening multisectoral collaboration, and improving resource allocation may enhance survivor-centred handling and improve medico-legal outcomes.

IntroductionThis study characterized depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in a convenience sample of Ukrainian displaced persons approximately 2 years after the full-scale invasion and explored associations with selected settlement-related indicators.MethodsA cross-sectional online survey was conducted between February and August 2024 among displaced Ukrainian adults (N = 241 with complete DASS-21 data), who completed the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 in Ukrainian, Russian, or English. Mean subscale scores were contextualized using published general-population reference values from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Poland, and Italy, and exploratory associations with housing stability, employment status, and host-country language proficiency were examined.ResultsMean depression, anxiety, and stress scores fell within the mild to moderate range and were generally higher than available European reference values, although these benchmark comparisons should be interpreted cautiously because the reference samples differed in timing, sampling frame, country context, and gender composition. A supplementary sex-composition sensitivity analysis using Polish female reference values suggested that the depression comparison was robust, whereas anxiety was attenuated and stress was modest. Within-sample analyses showed no meaningful association between distress and either language proficiency or employment status. Housing stability showed a tentative association with anxiety, driven primarily by lower anxiety among participants reporting long-term rather than medium-term housing.DiscussionThese findings suggest continuing psychological distress among Ukrainian displaced persons in this convenience sample, while underscoring the need for longitudinal, representative research that directly measures trauma exposure, uncertainty, and structural settlement conditions.

Alcohol use is strongly implicated in interpersonal violence, including sexual assault, yet research on this topic has often developed in separate literatures. Work in this area has typically focused on perpetration risk, memory and reporting, or legal and professional response, rather than considering how these problems may be linked through common cognitive processes. This special issue brings these strands of work into closer dialog by positioning alcohol-related interpersonal violence as a social-cognitive problem. The articles in this issue show that alcohol affects cognitive processes that are central to both the occurrence of violence and the responses that follow it. Taken together, the contributions suggest that alcohol-related interpersonal violence is not simply a matter of intoxication increasing risk, but of alcohol shaping the cognitive processes through which violence is enacted, remembered, evaluated, and addressed.

This study examines how acute alcohol intoxication during the encoding of a rape scenario affects metamemory processes and recall accuracy during police interviews. Metamemory is the ability to monitor and control memory reporting. We conducted a secondary data analysis of interview transcripts, applying a novel analytical approach to capture metamemory processes. Twenty-two women aged 18-25 (M = 20.00, SD = 1.63) were randomly assigned to be either intoxicated or sober during scenario encoding but sober during recall when they underwent a cognitive interview 1 week later. Accuracy was significantly lower in the question compared to free recall phase, particularly in the alcohol condition. Inaccurate recall was preceded by a higher incidence of metamemory indicators of increased retrieval effort (pauses, hedges, fillers), particularly in the question phase for intoxicated participants. These findings elucidate the effects of alcohol on metamemory and memory reporting during police interviews and highlight the need for research about techniques the police can use to maintain recall accuracy over the entire interview process.

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we measured the size and the variability of the semantic priming effect across 19 languages (N = 25,163 participants analyzed) by creating the largest available database of semantic priming values based on an adaptive sampling procedure. We found evidence for semantic priming in terms of differences in response latencies between related word-pair conditions and unrelated word-pair conditions. Model comparisons showed that inclusion of a random intercept for language improved model fit, providing support for variability in semantic priming across languages. This study highlights the robustness and variability of semantic priming across languages and provides a rich, linguistically diverse dataset for further analysis.

Participation in, and attendance at, court often positions people amid a charged emotional environment, where the evidence frequently involves distressing accounts and the stakes of decision-making are high. Research has explored the impact of this environment on various court protagonists. What this research has failed to consider in detail, however, are the ways in which such vectors of emotional reaction, containment and contagion interact and flow across the criminal court space: yielding affective environments in which emotion is not a commodity held (or denied) by one person, but a force that permeates and seeps into the spaces of justice. In this article, we set out the case for why such an understanding is necessary and instructive.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems are used around the world as a tool for both crime prevention and investigation. Alongside being a deterrent for criminal activity, CCTV can be used to help identify perpetrators of a crime through the process of face matching, which involves verifying the identity of one individual through comparison, for example, by comparing two face images to assess whether they are a "match." As an investigative tool, face matching can be used to identify individuals caught on CCTV to bring them in for further investigation. With a rise in technology and its role within the criminal justice system, this chapter aims to present an overview of face matching processes in a forensic context. More specifically, we discuss the differences between face matching in humans and machines, and the challenges and implications involved with using each process.

This study examined the effects of bystander or victim intoxication during a crime on juror perceptions and decision-making. Mock jurors (N = 261) read testimony from a bystander or victim to an assault, who mentioned that they had consumed alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines, or no substances prior to the crime. Participants delivered a verdict, rated the defendant's guilt, and rated the bystander/victim on their honesty, credibility, and cognitive competence. Witness intoxication and witness role did not influence defendant guilt. However, participants judged any witness intoxicated by amphetamines as less credible and cognitively competent than a sober witness. Furthermore, victims were judged to have lower credibility, cognitive competence, and honesty than bystanders. These findings suggest that jurors' decision-making about defendant guilt might not be influenced by witness intoxication or witness type. A witness' testimony, however, might be evaluated as less credible when delivered by a victim or an amphetamine-intoxicated witness.

Case attrition along the medico-legal referral pathway for sexual and domestic violence survivors has drawn attention worldwide. Despite much research about the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence in Kenya, little is known about factors impacting progress through the medico-legal referral pathway. To address this research gap, we analyzed data from the Wangu Kanja Foundation, based in Nairobi, to test which key case characteristics have explanatory power in predicting case progression. We used a sequential logit model to evaluate case progression as a series of distinct choices. Our analysis revealed that age of the survivor was the strongest predictor for all steps of the pathway, and that the presence of forensic evidence was also associated with increased odds of moving through each step. These findings reflect cultural ideas about what legitimizes a case of sexual or domestic violence and can be used to inform policy targeted at strengthening the case referral pathway in Kenya.

IntroductionThis study investigated the effects of face angle congruency across stages of a misinformation paradigm on lineup discrimination accuracy.MethodsIn a between-subjects design, participants viewed a mock crime with the perpetrator’s face from the front or profile angle. They then read a news report featuring an innocent suspect’s image from the same or different angle as the perpetrator had been shown. A subsequent lineup manipulated perpetrator presence and viewing angle of the lineup members, who were all shown either from the front or in profile.ResultsNo significant difference emerged in identification errors based on angle congruency between stages. However, accuracy was higher when faces were shown from the front angle, both during the initial event and the lineup, compared to the profile angle.DiscussionThe results of this research underscore the importance of considering viewing angles in the construction of lineups.

Objective: With COVID-19 came a range of public health measures that impacted people's routine activities. According to routine activity theory, these could affect the rate and nature of crime. This has largely been examined with volume crime (e.g., burglary, robbery) or crimes committed in the home. Stranger sex offenses greatly vary in nature and occur in a range of settings; therefore, these offenses present a novel opportunity to investigate different routine activity theory-based hypotheses. Method: The National Crime Agency routinely collects detailed information about all stranger sex offenses reported to the police in the United Kingdom. With these standardized data (N = 6,422), we studied the relationship between COVID-19 public health measures and the rate and characteristics of stranger sex offending across the entire first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting this with data from the same period pre-COVID-19. Results: Our findings accord with classic criminological theory whereby the incidence and characteristics of U.K. stranger sex offenses reported to police covaried with the population's patterns of mobility and national lockdowns during the first year of COVID-19. This impact on routine activities also manifested in differences in perpetrator and victim behavior and characteristics. Conclusions: Our study supports the applicability of routine activity theory to sex offending and brings new insights regarding the situational prevention of sex offending during major events such as a pandemic. It is also relevant to the urgent need to educate prosecutors who are now making decisions about sex offenses perpetrated during the early years of this pandemic.

To level the playing field in the production of global knowledge, we need to understand the practical implications of colonial heritage and how it has disproportionately affected scientific discourse and the generation and utilization of scientific knowledge from and about the Global South. This article explores how research practitioners can level the playing field. We must think about how we can collectively change the narrative so that every emerging scientist from the Global South can flourish and have an equal opportunity to conduct research that is meaningful to them and their societies. We argue the time has come for innovative and flexible models allowing science diplomacy to integrate features of reflexive and inclusive governance in its very core structures.

IntroductionGender-based violence (GBV) is under-reported to the authorities owing to the stigma, shame, and fear of reprisal that surrounds these crimes. To address this, there has been an influx of technologies, including mobile phone and online applications that allow victim-survivors (hereafter, victims) to document and report GBV (hereafter referred to as GBVxTech). We critically analysed the extent to which GBVxTech applications align with the scientific knowledge base on gathering accounts of crimes from victims and witnesses.MethodsWe identified 41 reporting and evidence building applications from around the world but found many (n = 19) were no longer accessible. A total of 13 applications met the study criteria and were available for download. We evaluated each application on how well its design and features align with established minimum best practice standards for gathering complete and accurate accounts from witnesses and victims, such as the pre-interview instructions (e.g., setting ground rules), questioning approach (e.g., using open-ended questions), and the adequacy of security features (e.g., password protection).Results and DiscussionWe found most applications employ open questions, encourage victims to report information in an independent voice, and seek to elicit information pertinent to a criminal investigation. None of the applications use leading questions. However, most applications do not establish ground rules, and many use forced-choice questions, do not time stamp the information gathered, or document when users change their answers. Many applications have limited security features, potentially compromising users’ safety. Further, some applications do not provide information about how to use the app, an informed consent procedure, or data usage information. We discuss the findings and offer recommendations for future GBVxTech development.

Domestic abuse is a widespread problem that has far reaching and grave consequences. To date, very little systematic data have been gathered on the relationship between domestic abuse and victim suicide. To address this gap, we conducted three strands of research, including: 1) Rapid evidence review. The review examined the long- and short-term causes, drivers and aggravating factors of domestic abuse (e.g., physical, emotional, psychological, financial) related suicide, to deliver a strong evidence base for identifying risk factors. 2) Fieldwork. A qualitative study with domestic abuse victims was conducted to better understand the relationship between domestic abuse and risk factors for suicide. 3) Quantitative evaluation. A quantitative study of domestic abuse incidents and suicide to better understand how the incidence of suicide differs amongst the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, and how this is correlated with its form. Based on our results, we recommend the creation and testing of an assessment tool that aims to identify the predictors of suicide by gathering information from the survivor. Administration of the tool should include gathering information from whether they have experienced life-threatening abuse; sexual assault/rape, coercion and control; multiple abuses and repetition of abuse, as well as information about their feeling states, including feelings of despair, hopelessness and burdensomeness/ isolation/self-hatred. The tool should also take into account the effects of the abuse on the survivor’s self-identity, such as the number of relationships which have been disrupted or terminated. This should also elicit information about a survivor’s perceptions of/relationship with the police (and health services) and may assist in building trust; and any previous or childhood experiences which were trauma or terror-inducing, such as, some form of abuse, disaster (e.g., house fire), accident or medical procedure. Further information should be gathered about the survivor’s coping strategies, such as whether they are using self-harm and/or alcohol and drugs to cope. We also recommend the development of guidelines for police forces and health services to introduce and maintain a domestic abuse survivor suicide prevention/welfare pathway, with local statutory and VCS partners. The framework should contain the information in this report, and any other/up-dated information about how domestic abuse dismantles the survivor’s identity and the link with suicide translated into operational understanding and practice. Additionally, we recommend that a small amount of additional funding is made available to explore the information collected in this research about the contact survivors have had with services other than the police and health services (e.g. children’s social care, schools, housing, immigration services, the Family courts and voluntary and community sector services). Moreover, more nuanced research needs to be undertaken to track the trajectory from abuse to suicidality and, in the process, to differentiate suicide ideation from suicidality. The research should incorporate evaluation of any of the above pilot activities.Finally, given that the quantitative analysis highlights the high rate of suicide amongst male perpetrators of domestic violence, further research is necessary to better understand this relationship and how it is affected by socio-economic factors, mental health, and substance abuse.

ObjectiveTo test whether acute alcohol intoxication and alcohol expectancy affects how accurately women remember consensual and non-consensual sexual activity that occurred during an interactive hypothetical dating scenario.DesignA balanced placebo randomized study that varied alcohol dose (mean Breath Alcohol Content; BrAC = 0.06%) and alcohol expectancy prior to participants encoding a hypothetical interactive rape scenario was implemented. Participants could elect to consent to sexual activity with a male partner in the hypothetical scenario. If they stopped consenting, non-consensual sexual intercourse (i.e., rape) was described. Seven days later, participants’ memory for consensual and non-consensual sexual activity in the scenario was tested.Main outcome measuresMemory accuracy, confidence, and feelings of intoxication.ResultsA total of 90 females (M age = 20.5, SD = 2.2) were tested regarding their memory accuracy for the consensual and non-consensual sexual activities in the scenario. A multi-level logistic regression predicting memory accuracy for the perpetrator’s behaviors during the rape indicated no effect of alcohol intoxication. However, a main effect of alcohol expectancy was found, whereby participants who expected to consume alcohol, compared to those who did not, recalled the perpetrator’s behaviors during the rape more accurately. A second regression predicting memory accuracy for consensual sexual activity found no main effects for alcohol intoxication or alcohol expectancy. Participants recalled consensual sexual activity with a high degree of accuracy. Calibration analyses indicated that accuracy increased with confidence level, regardless of intoxication level or alcohol expectancy condition, but that women tended to be overconfident in general.ConclusionThis study provides an important test of how accurately women remember consensual and non-consensual sexual activities. The accuracy of this information is important for forensic medical examinations and police investigations following an allegation of sexual assault. Increased memory accuracy was found for offence details when participants expected to consume alcohol, suggesting there may be important differences in attentional processes (e.g., hypervigilance) depending on whether threat is present. Further research is necessary to investigate memory for sexual violence in real-world settings and to test methods for ascertaining the most complete and reliable accounts.

Sexual violence (SV) is a widespread public health and human rights problem, with countries in East Africa having higher rates than the global average. Prosecutions of SV in East Africa are rare, and survivors face many challenges accessing medico-legal justice and services. Developing initiatives that support survivors in navigating the criminal justice system is vital, yet there is limited research on efforts to improve the criminal justice system's management and treatment of survivors. We conducted a scoping review of research on initiatives to strengthen responses toward investigating and prosecuting cases. We identified 25 academic articles and reports through a search of electronic databases and gray literature that address these initiatives in East Africa. The results reveal that seven types of initiatives have been studied: one-stop centers (OSCs), multisectoral referral networks, gender desks, community interventions, mobile applications, and specialized police and prosecution units. Upon review, we found that barriers to success include a lack of resources and facilities, a lack of trained health care, police, and judicial personnel to perform services, weak medico-legal partnerships, and stigma and impunity restricting the uptake and fair distribution of services. Overall, limited systematic evidence on the effectiveness and adaptability of initiatives exists, showing that SV interventions in East Africa remain an under-researched and under-resourced area, and need greater scientific rigor to inform practice and coordinated advocacy. This review is a call to action for policy makers and service providers working in East Africa-and for international bodies working toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals 5-to improve criminal justice initiatives.