Can Undergraduate Artists With No Training in Forensic Art Produce Accurate Age Progressions?

Abstract

When children go missing and remain missing for long periods of time, authorities sometimes retain forensic artists to age progress the last known picture to provide an estimate of the current appearance. In the present research, undergraduate artists with no training in forensic art were asked to age progress images of children to an adult appearance. Similarity of age progressions produced by undergraduate artists were as similar to the corresponding targets as were age progressions produced by practicing forensic artists. However, age progressions produced by undergraduate artists were rated as being more similar to description matched foils than were the age progressions produced by professional forensic artists, suggesting that professionally produced age progressions might be more useful. Results suggest that untrained individual have sufficient knowledge of facial growth to produce age progressions that are somewhat similar to their corresponding targets.