Overcoming Obstacles in the Implementation of Forensic Age Progression

失踪儿童是执法部门面临的一个重要问题。 由于儿童的外貌随着年龄的增长而发生变化，这一问题变得更加复杂，因此更难让公众帮助寻找儿童。 一种被推荐的方法是使用法医年龄进展。在法医年龄进展中，典型面部生长模式的知识被应用于儿童失踪前后的照片，以估计儿童目前的外貌。 年龄的增长也可能使用的照片上的生物亲属的假设，孩子？在约三分之一的长期失踪儿童案件中，使用了年龄递增法。不幸的是，之前的研究有限，并且产生了好坏参半的结果。 虽然应用关于平均生长率的信息来估计儿童目前的外观是明智的，但儿童之间的生长模式也存在相当大的差异。 这使得准确预测单个儿童的情况变得困难。 计划中的研究审查了可能影响年龄增长有效性的因素。 在第一年，这项研究将审查年龄范围对年龄进展的有效性的影响。 在第2年和第3年，研究将检查呈现多个年龄进展的影响，显示孩子目前的样子。 这项研究是首次系统地尝试了解影响法医年龄进展成功的因素之一。更多地了解导致成功年龄进展的因素将使从业者能够更准确地估计失踪儿童的外观，从而提高找回失踪儿童的可能性。

Missing children represent an important problem for law enforcement. This problem is complicated by the fact that the appearance of children changes as they grow older, making it more difficult to engage the public's help in finding them. One approach that has been recommended is the use of forensic age progression. In forensic age progression, knowledge of typical facial growth patterns are applied to photographs of children from around the time they went missing in order to provide an estimate of the child's current appearance. Age progression may also use photographs of biological relatives on the assumption that the child?s current appearance may be similar to that of their relatives.Age progression is used in about one-third of long-term missing child cases. Unfortunately, prior research has been limited and has produced mixed results. Although it is sensible to apply information about average growth rates to provide an estimate of a child's current appearance, there is also considerable variability in growth patterns between children. This makes accurate prediction in the case of an individual child difficult. The planned research examines factors that may influence the effectiveness of age progressions. During the first year, this research will examine the influence of age range on the effectiveness of age progressions. In Years 2 and 3, the research will examine the impact of presenting multiple age progressions showing what the child may currently look like. The proposed research is one of the first systematic attempts to understand the factors that impact the success of forensic age progression. Knowing more about the factors that lead to successful age progressions will allow practitioners to more create more accurate estimates of the appearance of missing children, resulting in an improved likelihood of recovering missing children.