Essay On Eyewitness
Eyewitness identification can not always be trusted and plays a major role in more than 70% of original convictions later overturned by DNA (Dunn). Eyewitness misidentification of criminals is a major issue in the United States' justice system, however, there is a solution.
Misidentification results in innocent people going to jail. It can be caused by misrecognition, imperfect memory, and the stress of a crime scene. Misidentification effects the person on trial since they can be convicted of a crime that they did not commit. "People get it wrong", Campanelli said. "They get it wrong and convince themselves that they are right" (McCoppin).
Some people get wrongfully convicted because of the mistakes of the eyewitnesses. One by misrecognition, two by Imperfect memory, and three by environmental factors. "It is possible to misrecognize a stranger as someone you know or have seen before" says Lopez (McCoppin). The suspect could remind them of someone that they saw earlier in the day and wasn’t even at the crime scene. Like when you recognize the face, but can not remember where you saw them. They might think that they saw the person at the crime scene but they might …show more content…
Research done by John Dunn showed that police sequential lineups were better than simultaneous lineups (Dunn). In simultaneous lineups, they show all of the photos at one time, and in sequential, they show the pictures one at a time (Dunn). It will help solve the issue of misidentifying the wrong person as the criminal in 2 ways. "First, because the suspect could be the culprit but none of the innocent fillers could be" (Dunn). "Second, high accuracy would be reflected in a high level of suspect identification coupled with low level of filler identification" (Dunn). This is just one solution to try to improve the justice system, there are many other studies that are trying to find solutions to this
Misidentification results in innocent people going to jail. It can be caused by misrecognition, imperfect memory, and the stress of a crime scene. Misidentification effects the person on trial since they can be convicted of a crime that they did not commit. "People get it wrong", Campanelli said. "They get it wrong and convince themselves that they are right" (McCoppin).
Some people get wrongfully convicted because of the mistakes of the eyewitnesses. One by misrecognition, two by Imperfect memory, and three by environmental factors. "It is possible to misrecognize a stranger as someone you know or have seen before" says Lopez (McCoppin). The suspect could remind them of someone that they saw earlier in the day and wasn’t even at the crime scene. Like when you recognize the face, but can not remember where you saw them. They might think that they saw the person at the crime scene but they might …show more content…
Research done by John Dunn showed that police sequential lineups were better than simultaneous lineups (Dunn). In simultaneous lineups, they show all of the photos at one time, and in sequential, they show the pictures one at a time (Dunn). It will help solve the issue of misidentifying the wrong person as the criminal in 2 ways. "First, because the suspect could be the culprit but none of the innocent fillers could be" (Dunn). "Second, high accuracy would be reflected in a high level of suspect identification coupled with low level of filler identification" (Dunn). This is just one solution to try to improve the justice system, there are many other studies that are trying to find solutions to this