In the Anglo-American tradition an enormous amount of time, energy, ingenuity and money has been spent on research into the design and staging of identification parades. Nearly all of this research proceeds on the assumption that the only or main function of such staged events is to produce admissible and, as far as possible, reliable evidence. But this assumption is sociologically dubious. It may well be the case that in practice identification parades may serve other functions, such as persuading the suspect that 'the game is up' and that, in the common law system, it would be sensible to plead guilty; or that no positive identification is expected and that the absence of a positive identification may be used to eliminate a suspect or to provide a justification for closing an enquiry for lack of evidence; or there may be other latent functions.