Prospective Person Memory, Missing Persons, and Identity Screening

A growing area of research involving eyewitnesses involves cases where members of the public are called to be “on the lookout” for missing persons and wanted fugitives. Whereas most eyewitness identification research has focused on scenarios where members of the public witness an event (e.g., a crime) and are asked to identify relevant persons later, missing persons searches present facial images to the public in the hope they may spontaneously recognize those depicted if encountered during everyday life. This chapter outlines the contemporary scope of missing persons cases in the United States and elsewhere, reviews the current experimental literature with a focus on prospective person memory paradigms, and discusses emerging practical and ethical issues related to identity verification by humans and machines.