America's Forensic Artist

Lois Gibson holds the world record for most identifications by a forensic artist—over 1,313 cases solved. But she opens with a startling claim: there are almost no forensic artists left in the United States. Only Texas and Georgia have them. "If you don't count her in Texas, there's none," she says. Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Kansas City—all without a single forensic artist. For Gibson, who was nearly killed in a sexual assault decades ago, this shortage is a crisis, especially for the youngest victims.

How a forensic sketch actually works

The common image of a forensic artist is someone who listens to a witness describe a face and draws it from scratch. Gibson's method is different. She uses a catalog—specifically the Samantha Steinberg catalog—that contains about 200 variations of eyes, noses, lips, and other facial features. Witnesses don't need to find words for what they saw. They just point.

This matters because most people, including adults, cannot verbally describe a face they've seen. "Your brain can't offer that up to you," Gibson explains. But shown a catalog of options, a witness will recognize the right features. The artist's job is to assemble those pieces in correct proportion—eyes the right distance apart, the nose in the right position relative to the mouth.