Early testing shows that inserting Dr Rachel Zajac's wild card - a picture of a silhouetted head with a large question mark superimposed - into photographic line-ups halves the chances of child witnesses identifying the wrong person.
Critically, her research showed children's ability to correctly identify a ‘‘target'' whose photograph was included in the line-up was not affected.
Now, Dr Zajac has begun a $170,000, two-year study financed by the Marsden Fund to research the idea further and see if the wild card produces similar results with adult witnesses, and with people participating in photographic line-ups after a long delay.
Children were vulnerable to suggestion from adults and were often reluctant to verbally reject anyone in a photographic line up, something which could have ‘‘dire consequences'' for a suspect who was innocent, she said.
‘‘Just presenting them with a group of photos implies that one of the photos is the right one. As a result . . . they end up selecting the line-up member who most closely resembles their memory for the perpetrator. The wild card gives them another option.''
Dr Zajac came up with the idea about two years ago. With the permission of parents and teachers, she and her staff have already tested the wild card in about 10 schools in Dunedin, Balclutha and Milton.
There was no question of children being exposed to criminals, she said.
One experiment involved a stranger sliding down the pole at the Dunedin central fire station in front of a class of children, then being told off by a firefighter.
The stranger became the ‘‘target'' some of the children were asked to identify in a photographic line-up.
She said she was indebted to schools, children and parents.
Dr Zajac is associate director of Innocence Project New Zealand, a group of academics, scientists, writers and lawyers established 10 months ago to investigate possible cases of wrongful conviction.
Two weeks ago, she attended an international Innocence Network conference in California.
She said the most powerful and motivating experience was meeting 70 of the 215 US citizens wrongly convicted and subsequently released from prison because of the efforts of the US Innocence Project.
Most people had been released because DNA testing not available at the time of their trials revealed the wrong person was jailed, she said.
But mistaken identification was one of the biggest contributors to wrongful convictions and the value of her research was reinforced.
If the research continued to produce positive results, discussions would be held with the police about implementing the wild card in real line-ups, she said.