SPOKEN PORTRAIT: BACKGROUND, CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The spoken portrait is considered an artistic discipline through which the portrait of a wanted, lost or unknown person is made. This technique is used by the police and judicial bodies to help solve criminal cases.

The artist takes as a basis for his work, the testimony and physiognomic data provided by witnesses or people who saw the individual described. The spoken portrait was initially made by hand, through a drawing created by an artist trained or specialized in recreating faces.

Currently this technique is digital, as it is carried out through specialized computer programs. The programs are loaded with hundreds of figures or shapes of each part of a person's face, which are combined according to the data provided by the witnesses.

Currently, facial reconstruction work also uses other artistic techniques such as sculpture. The modern spoken portrait is made with the help of painters, sculptors, graphic designers and architects.

Background

The most important antecedent of the spoken portrait or identification by facial features is in France. At the end of the 19th century, the French anthropologist and physician Alphonse Bertillon (1853 - 1914) developed a technique for identifying and classifying criminals.

The technique was known as "bertillonaje" and was based on measurements of the head and hands. Bertillon worked for the Paris police as head of the Identification Office, which included this method from 1882 to solve criminal cases.

The efficient method was applied to 700 surveys without error and spread to other European countries. Later it was perfected, adding photographs and personal details of the criminals that were sought.

Other innovations

Some time later, other innovations were incorporated into this technique, such as the use of the personal file. This includes basic information about people, such as date of birth and age.

Personal traits (color of eyes, hair, nose) and anthropometric measurements of the head, neck and ears are also included, as well as particular signs such as scars, spots and moles, among others.

Bertillon classified the shapes of the face from the analysis of photographs. Later, this allowed the portraitists to draw in pencil the faces of criminals described by victims or eyewitnesses.

Modern portrait

In the 1970s the spoken portrait was in common use in forensic services almost all over the world. However, the problem was that the artists who made them followed the same pattern for all face drawings.

Then the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) of the United States developed a system with the purpose of standardizing the assessment of facial features. The system included a comprehensive catalog of other additional items, such as hats, glasses, caps and earrings.

As early as the 1980s, portable cases containing acetate prints were developed. When overlapping, these automatically generated the portrait. In the 90's, computing expanded the possibilities to perfect the technique.

Currently the spoken portrait has a very high degree of accuracy and a very low margin of error, thanks to the programs or software used.

Systems used in the spoken portrait

Identikit

It is used to create a face by using a kit of previously prepared partial images, the combination of which allows facial reconstruction.

Photo kit

The portrait is obtained by mixing a kit of photographs with partial physiognomic features.

Robot or computer portrait

The image of the person is obtained using a specialized computer program that combines face types and partial features to generate a new image. The best known are the Faces or the Faccete, which is used in Europe.

Other programs are Caramex (Mexico) and Animetrics, which compares photographs and videos with faces.

characteristics

- The spoken portrait is recognized as forensic art; basically applies visual arts in combination with scientific knowledge and technological development. In this way, he creates images that serve to support the criminal investigative process.

- This technique is associated only with criminal investigation (crimes such as robbery, homicides, kidnappings, rapes, scams, etc.).

- At present, professionals from different scientific disciplines participate in the development of the spoken portrait: plastic artists (painters, sculptors), graphic designers, architects and psychologists, among others.

- Formerly the spoken portrait was developed only from the testimony of witnesses or people who knew the requested individual. Today there are specialized computer programs to support the development of the portrait.

- The quality of the portrait or drawing depends largely on the witness and the precision of the data it offers for facial reconstruction, either with the technique of drawing or sculpture.

- It uses the interview method to gather the necessary information about the individual facial characteristics of the person to be described.

Types

Conventional portrait

This is done through an interview with the complainant or witness of the crime.

Morphological approximation

Its elaboration is made from a faulty image in photography or video.

Age progression

The portrait is made on the basis of old photographs of the disappeared person, progressively reaching the current age or a reference to how it would look today.

Different aspect

A photograph of the person sought is used to make sketches of their possible physical appearance. It is intended to achieve identification even if the subject disguises herself or has increased her body sizes.

Other classification

Other authors classify spoken portraits into composite portraiture and graphic spoken portrait.

Composite spoken portrait

It consists of drawing the face of the requested person through the interview between the expert (artist) and the informant, regardless of whether the portrait is drawn by hand or using a computer. This includes the retouching phase.

Graphic spoken portrait

It results from the application of a systematized method used to capture facial morphologies of the person in a drawing (face track). These characteristics are orally dictated by witnesses or victims of different previous criminal acts.

It also serves to generate the portrait of the lost person of which there are no physiognomic images.

References

1. Spoken portrait. Consulted from ifil.org.mx
2. Spoken portrait. Consulted of Cienciasforenses.jalisco.gob.mx
3. Spoken portrait: powerful weapon in PGR investigations. Consulted of debate.com.mx
4. The Theory of the Spoken Portrait. Consulted of tecnicrim.co.cu
5. A little history. Consulted of antropologiafisicaparaque.wordpress.com
6. Alphonse Bertillon. Consulted of biografiasyvidas.com
7. The Spoken Portrait and its Criminalistic conception. Consulted of facebook.com