Outline and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (12 marks).…
Testimonials can come in different forms. Frequently, law enforcement will take statements from individuals who they believe may have information due to what they have seen or heard; however, the importance of testimonials in not necessary in the statement, but how, when, and by whom the information is obtained. It is of extreme importance that any witness that provides testimony is able to provide that same information under oath, without having an individual bear witness under oath, the prosecutor runs the risk of the statement being inadmissible (Worral, Hemmens, & Nored, 2012, p. 71). Examples of testimonials’ that are admissible would be affidavits and depositions, or testifying in a…
Research suggests that anxiety and the age of witnesses can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (EWT) for a variety of reasons. The age of a witness can affect the accuracy of eye witness testimony and it is thought that as a result, EWT is often inaccurate. Research by Geiselman and Padilla (1988) found that children were less accurate when reporting events of a filmed bank robbery than adults; despite this, other research has failed to find much of a difference between adults and children, especially when free recall instead of structured interview is used. Furthermore, Children appear to be more susceptible to leading questions than adults (Goodman & Reid, 1986), and younger children are more likely to incorporate misleading information into their memories of the events if they are asked the same question repeatedly (Leichtman & Ceci, 1995). Most research into the accuracy of children’s memory has come from laboratory research, therefore it allows for precise control of variables, the experiments can be replicated for reliability and the independent variables will be carefully constructed allowing good inference of cause and effect. On the other hand, lab experiments are artificial as the setting is not typical of real life situations, therefore lacking ecological validity. It is not just the memory of children that has been tested; Anastasi & Rhodes (2006) used participants aged 18 – 78 years and found that young and middle-aged participants were more accurate at recognising photographs than older participants. Furthermore, Yarmey (1984) and Cohen & Faulkner (1988) found older people made more recall errors than younger people. Both researches suggest that the memory and therefore EWT is probably as unreliable as a child’s.…
Many of which can affect the outcome of an identification. Just by simply changing a few ways they handle a witness they can avoid a misidentification. When conducting a lineup, the witness should be told that regardless of the outcome the lineup the investigation into the crime will continue on. After they completed the lineup the witness should complete a statement of confidence, stating how confident they are about the person they identified (Innocence Project, 2015). This way police can judge how the witness feels about the lineup. A police officer should have a good understanding of how a witness feels. According to Wells et al. (1998) researchers have realized that there is an importance in the confidence of the eyewitness. Even the Supreme Court has had eyewitnesses rate their certainty which has been taken into account of the eyewitness accuracy (p. 14). It can be intimidating going up in front of a courtroom. The confidence of a witness plays a huge part in court. Even if the suspect is the wrong one the jury is more likely to believe a confident witness over one who is…
I would have to say that it depends on the eye witness. A human being has been proven to sometimes see things that are not actually there and believe things that never happened. The emotions that we have make us susceptible to having our perceptions skewed and out senses tricked. There's also the issue of someone lying for personal gain. That being said, I wouldn't say that eye witness testimony isn't reliable, but it can't be seen as infallible and should be able to hold up to a certain amount of scrutiny.…
Psychological research shows that eyewitness testimony is not always accurate; therefore it should not be used in the criminal justice system. Discuss.…
Memory and Eyewitness Testimony are two concepts which are studied within the topic of cognitive psychology. It is important to investigate these processes to aid in the understanding of how individuals cognitively process ideas and how this may affect specific behaviors. From a psychological perspective, memory can be defined as, “The capacity to retain and store information” (holah.co.uk, 2006). The further researches into the topic of memory allow it to greatly contribute toward societies' legal system, specifically in the sense of Eyewitness Testimony. Individuals may feel confident towards their memory abilities but according to many researchers, one's memory is not always reliable. (Bartlett, 1932) believed that memory is unreliable due…
Eyewitness testimony or the testimonies given by eyewitnesses are often times used as evidence in court. A person who has seen a crime occur, mentions their account of what happened during the time a crime was committed. Typically, when people think of eyewitnesses, they think of adults as playing that role, but children also play an important part and serve as eyewitnesses as well. The testimonies given by the adult eyewitnesses and children eyewitnesses for many reasons, are problematic at times.…
How fearful are witnesses when they are asked to testify during a serious offense? (Circle one)…
Eyewitness testimony has been used frequently over time in various situations. It sometimes holds more merit then some facts or evidence. Yet it is also the reason why many innocent people go to jail and criminals still walk free. Eyewitness testimony has been used for over 100 years. It has played a major part in convicting criminals, from the common thief to the most dangerous murderer. However, with the time between incident and testimony or even report can vary drastically, the quality of eyewitness testimony wasn 't really recognized as an issue until the 1970 's. With plenty of unsolved crimes and not enough evidence eyewitness testimony was all that was needed. Now with psychologists holding scientific studies to see if it is reliable;…
Aim: To test their hypothesis that that language used in eyewitness testimony can differ memory.…
In the article, “Safeguards Against Wrongful Conviction in Eyewitness Identification Cases: Insights from Empirical Research,” Andrew Smith and Lisa Dufraimont (2014) address how eyewitness identifications are vital factors in convicting suspects. However, some of those identifications are inaccurate or mistaken, and innocent people can be wrongly convicted. In fact, mistaken eyewitness identification is the main factor in wrongful convictions of the innocent (Smith and Dufraimont, 2014). Furthermore, eyewitness identifications are not the only factors to consider. Law enforcement personnel and lawyers can also “contribute to wrongful convictions” (Smith & Dufraimont, 2014 p. 200). As a result, precautions were established to prevent such…
Eyewitness testimony is one of the least reliable methods of identification our criminal justice system has. It has been shown through many different studies that eyewitness testimony can lead to faulty identification driven by false memories. Although this information is widely known, eyewitness testimony is still used as an important aspect of most criminal cases. Eyewitness testimony can make or break a defendant’s fate. The chapter illustrated important elements that often alter a witness's memory. Specifically, the chapter discussed how stress is able to change people’s memories negatively. Stress causes physiological responses that may cause witnesses to cling to details they do not remember accurately. If a witness thinks they saw a…
Eyewitness identification and testimonies are relied on heavily by the criminal justice system to help with investigation and prosecution of crimes and criminals. Due to the increase in the use of eyewitness identification psychologist began studying the results more efficiently to gain a clearer understanding of the risks it holds.. A scientific literature on this specific topic was created and highlighted the issues that have been discovered with eyewitness identifications and testimonies. “Mistaken eyewitness identification was the largest single factor contributing to the conviction of innocent people.”(CITE EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY) These factors that can relate to…
According to the Innocence Project even after thirty years of social science eyewitness identification is often reliable. Research shows that the human mind is not at all like a tape recorder. People neither record events exactly as they see them, nor recall them like a tape that has been rewound. Witness memory is comparable to other evidence in case in that it must be preserved carefully and retrieved very meticulously or else it can become…