Eyewitness testimony is an interesting topic that affects all of us on an everyday basis. However, the reliability of the eyewitness testimony is one of the widely debated issues of forensic psychology. If you saw a crime or were the victim of one would you be able to remember what you saw? Loftus and Palmer . Eyewitness testimony is a hot button issue in not only the criminal justice field but also the psychology field as well. statistics of testimony use, error, and impact as well as descriptions of other common memory issues that eyewitnesses may experience. Grades: 7 th, 8 th, 9 th, 10 th, 11 th, 12 th, Homeschool. Subjects: Science, Forensics. The criminal justice system relies heavily on eyewitness identification for investigating and prosecuting crimes. Eyewitness testimony has been studied by legal experts and psychologists since the early twentieth century. When eyewitness testimony is wrong . According to former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, “[T]here is almost nothing more convincing than a live human being who takes the stand, points a finger at the defendant, and says ‘That’s the one!’” Such testimony, however, is not always reliable. Because of this very basic reason, it is already a salient topic to discuss with regard to its direct application of expertise in memory. In this I will attempt to show you my discussions of several statistics, convictions, exonerations, and key cases that will test the views of anyone when eyewitness testimonies are concerned. Eyewitness testimony is based on the human memory. Participants were shown videos of robberies — robbery involves a weapon and a victim; burglary does not — where one group saw the robber with the pistol concealed and one group saw the robber with the gun in plain sight. Psychology has built the only scientific literature on eyewitness identification and has warned the justice system of problems with eyewitness identification evidence. Moreover, many members of the criminal justice system believe that errors of identifica­ tion are really quite rare, and therefore they have little reason to refrain from prosecuting when the only evidence is EW testimony. notes are a great alternative to boring scaffolded notes! The testimony of an eyewitness to a crime is of great importance when it comes to convicting a person who is accused of committing a crime. At least until the 1970s, and to some extent still today, the legal system operated as if the testimony of a credible and confident eyewitness was essentially infallible. The proper use of eyewitness testimony is gaining traction, thanks in large part to psychologists' research and testimony. 435 (2009) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at CUA Law Scholarship Repository. Braun, Ellis, and Loftus (2002) found that when par - ticipants were presented with visual evidence that . Research has found that eyewitness-identification testimony can be very unreliable. Within the past 30 years crimes were committed, and the people who witness these crimes made the cases have different outcomes. EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY 8 Similarly, cross-gender identifications are significantly less accurate than own-gender identifications: 76% v. 72% (Cutler, 1995). On the day Mr Menezes was killed, a picture was quickly painted by eyewitnesses of a suspect who had vaulted over a ticket barrier, ran away from police, and had worn a bulky jacket that could have concealed a device. Law enforcement and the courts should follow the recommendations of social scientists when using and assessing eyewitness techniques, such as lineups, in criminal cases. Researchers have tested this theory, as well. When eyewitness testimony is wrong 06:04. The aftermath of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station has shown that eyewitness testimony may not always be as reliable as it seems. An account given by an eyewitness can certainly help in corroborating the crime. Endnotes [1] A nested logistic regression indicated that the effect for the type of question is significant χ2 (83, N = 16,495) = 1371.36, p < .001. Most U.S. law enforcement agencies use the simultaneous lineup, in which the eyewitness views a lineup of individuals or a photo array; that is, all individuals are viewed at the same time. Researchers have found that the words investigators use to gather facts can influence how people respond when asked about the details of an event. There are hundreds of documented cases in which mistaken eyewitness identification has led to false imprisonment. Eyewitness Testimony Accuracy. Eyewitness testimony is a legal term and it refers to an account given by a bystander in the courtroom, who describes what happened during a specific incident under investigation. My talk System and estimator variables Lineup composition Post-identification events Witness instructions Eyewitness evidence in the courts Significant recent cases . The first important case study occurred in 1902. On the basis of mounting evidence, psychologists have argued that a major contributing factor to these wrongful convictions is one of the seven sins of memory: suggestibility (Schacter, 1999). Since his conviction, several eyewitnesses have recanted, but their words haven’t helped Davis win any appeals. Jurors often find eyewitness testimony (EWT) vitally important in making their decision and yet in 75 per cent of cases where individuals have been found by DNA evidence to have been wrongly convicted, the original guilty verdict was based on inaccurate EWT. Why Eyewitness Testimony? They believe that the human memory records the events and just plays them back exactly how they happened. Eyewitness identifications play an important role in the investigation and prosecution of crimes, but it is well known that eyewitnesses make mistakes, often with serious consequences. By Saul McLeod, updated 2014. One student stood up and shouted that he wanted to show how the topic was related to Christian ethics. A complete explanation of the statistical model utilized for this analysis is available from the author upon request. Without objective evidence, the two are indistinguishable. Every year in North America at least 75,000 people are identified from police lineups and subsequently prosecuted. Experimental psychologists in general (and Elizabeth Loftus in particular) awakened the legal system to the fact that eyewitness memory is malleable and is therefore not immune to contamination. This is the principal way in which the guilt of the accused is established through verbal witness evidence in court. Notes on Eyewitness Testimony is the perfect way to scaffold notes or review the way the human memory works. Estimator variables are factors that can affect the accuracy of eyewitness identifications but that are outside of the control of the criminal justice system. Eyewitness testimony is a potent form of evidence for convicting the accused, but it is subject to unconscious memory distortions and biases even among the most confident of witnesses. So memory can be remarkably accurate or remarkably inaccurate. Faulty eyewitness testimony is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions in the US. Despite their considerable strengths, however, witnesses do make errors. Faulty eyewitness testimony has been implicated in at least 75% of DNA exoneration cases—more than any other cause (Garrett, 2011). Indeed, many witnesses to an offence, both adults and children, can remember events with enough clarity and accuracy to assist triers-of-fact in rendering a verdict. The General Background section contains an overview of memory processes and the nature of stress. Verb Use . Statistics; Eyewitness Testimony; Car Crash Study; Loftus and Palmer. Project t . Eyewitness Identification: Simultaneous vs. Sequential Lineups. Most people think that the human memory is like a video recorder. Based almost exclusively on eyewitness testimony, Davis was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death. It is often the only evidence available in certain kinds of crimes. To determine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, you must understand how the human memory works. Eyewitness identification testimony is widely accepted in the courts. It continues to be argued that this type of “evidence” is far too unreliable for the court room and can ultimately end up punishing the wrong person for a crime they did not commit. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has been particularly concerned with how subsequent information can affect an eyewitness’s account of an event. Misinformation is not limited to biased question - ing but can also be presented through pictorial cues, such as doctored photographs and advertisements. Understanding these concepts is vital to understanding the core purpose and research in this paper. In a particularly famous case, a man named Ronald Cotton was identified by a rape victim, Jennifer Thompson, as her rapist, and was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. testimony if they are interviewed together or overhear other testimony (known as the co-witness effect). Witnesses may also be asked about the facts of the case. [65.10] Eyewitness testimony can be critical in both criminal and civil trials, and is frequently accorded high status in the courtroom. Eyewitness identification testimony can be very persuasive. PDF | On Jan 1, 2014, Cara Laney and others published Eyewitness testimony and memory biases | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate Consultant with the Arizona Justice Project Teach courses in statistics, psychology & law, jury decision making . But researchers have discovered that this is not how the … In a law school in Berlin, a well-known criminologist named von Liszt was delivering a lecture when an argument broke out. 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