Preview

Inaccurate Eyewitness Testimony

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1411 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Inaccurate Eyewitness Testimony
In society it is substantially common for people to be exonerated for a crime they did not commit. Unfortunately it is even more common for that to happen when they are incarcerated due to inaccurate eyewitness testimonies. Eyewitness research has demonstrated that there are a multitude of ways to conduct identification processes, however, the processes that police often use today are more likely to encourage inaccurate identification. In addition there have been many case studies of exonerated people that show the downfalls of eyewitness testimony. Wrongful incarceration has consistently demonstrated that inaccurate identification carries a big weight when it comes to wrongful identification, in fact, in the article Contamination of Eyewitness Self-Reports and Mistaken-Identification Problem by Laura Smalarz and Gary L. Wells, they state that there is an average of thirty three percent of witnesses who make an identification from a lineup identify a known innocent filler. There is a lot of thought behind the processes of identification but there are so many variables that can taint a subject’s confidence.
In fact, even when testing solutions it in a lab it is far from reality in an actual lineup. Smalarz
…show more content…
The ‘illusion of truth’ problem is mainly due to the misinterpreting of memory which could be because of source confusion. The manipulation of stimulus presentation designed to make perceiving easier leads to processing fluency, then once a stimulus registered as special it will attribute fluency to a specific prior event and therefore will create false familiarity. Post identification feedback gives witnesses that have scarce access to clear memory an external cue to how they are answering questions, unlike accurate eyewitness who have stronger access to an internal cue that analyzes an sense of recognition which is different from

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    According to Smalarz and Wells (2014), the leading cause of wrongful convictions is eyewitness misidentification. Smalarz and Wells described a unique case where a rape victim, JT, had the opportunity to correctly identify her attacker. JT’s lawyer had received reports of her attacker bragging about getting away with the rape while he was in prison for another crime. The victim, JT, incorrectly identified the attacker, she actually choose the same person she choose in her first line up after the assault. The information JT’s lawyer presented her had essential information on the case and to convict the culprit but, the timing of the information was received too late.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this court case, the eyewitness identification of the truck was vital to the initial traffic stop of the vehicle. The 911 caller’s identification of the vehicle played a key role in the court as it served as evidence against the petitioners, so if the caller’s description of the vehicle was not accurate, the right truck would not have been found or the case could be dropped. In a study performed by Neil Brewer and Gary L. Wells, they identified several variables that impact the witness’s accuracy and instill a bias against the suspect. Some of these variables include cross-racial identification and poor lighting (Brewer & Wells, 2011). The cross-racial bias is when someone of one race is able to more easily identify another member of their own race, and their ability to identify someone of another race is impaired (Rutledge, 2016). In an effort to decrease the prevalence of the cross-racial bias, psychologists have recommended the use of double-blind lineups to hopefully discourage the administrator of the lineup from involuntarily indicating the witness to the suspect. Some prime routes to consider when trying to advance in the accuracy of eyewitness identification are decreasing the certainty of variables to explain the identification performance, and the inadequacy of scrutinizing interactions…

    • 1638 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Crime seems to be on a rise, from low poverty areas to the white collar vicinities. Today’s technology however, is assisting with the apprehension of criminals through the means of cameras, computers, fingerprinting and others. However, something that technology cannot help with is to identify the exact actions of individuals, nor can you duplicate what is seen by others. Eyewitnesses are so important when it comes to the criminal process. It’s vital for individuals to give accurate account of crimes witnessed. It is just as important for those that are gathering the information, or witness statements, to assess each eyewitness correctly, for that statement can put an innocent man in jail and a criminal back in the streets.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Results from the researchers questionnaire sent to exonerated individuals, Innocence Project attorneys, and incarcerated inmates claiming innocence will be analyzed thoroughly based off the information of the individual’s charges, sentence served, reasons they were wrongfully convicted, key evidence that reversed the initial charges, and reasons that made it difficult for inmates to have access to post-conviction procedures. Feedback from the Innocence Project attorneys and incarcerated but claiming innocent inmates will also be analyzed. These results will be compared and put together for an explanation regarding the reasons that lead to wrongful convictions. Results leading to inaccurate eyewitness identification as the top reason that leads toward wrongful conviction and poor development of eyewitness identification procedures would confirm the hypothesis. However, if results showed otherwise, with inaccurate eyewitness identification as not the most common element and statistics show eyewitness identification procedures are frequently developed and improved, this type of result will disconfirm the researchers…

    • 2617 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Overall eyewitness evidence strength was further examined across prosecution outcomes in the eyewitness identification alone cases” (Flowe, 2011). When it comes to being a creditable source of being an eye witness there are many things that, factor how using someone’s testimony as accountable source. When it comes to linking and eyewitness testimony and the accusing someone under false pretenses there has been amplitude of research that has being placed into forensic psychology to help see how useful resources are when it comes to taking an eyewitness word. “The connection between erroneous eyewitness identification evidence and wrongful convictions has been the motivating force behind much research in forensic psychology” (Wells, 2006). When…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    McCloskey, M., & Zaragoza, M. (1985). Misleading Post Event Information and Memory for Events: Arguments and Evidence against Memory Impairment Hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,…

    • 2876 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wrongful Convictions Essay

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Anderson was convicted and served twenty years due to government misconduct, inadequate defense, and eyewitness misidentification. The officer leading this Anderson’s arrest and conviction is the culprit of the government misconduct, which is when government officials “lose sight of these obligations and instead focus solely on securing convictions,” that landed the innocent man lacking a criminal record with a two-hundred and ten year sentence (Innocence Project). The officer in this case took broad information from the victim and pinpointed it to fit that of Anderson because he was “only…man” the officer personally knew of that vaguely fit this criteria despite his lack of a criminal record. Because there were no governmentally filed photographs of Anderson, the officer went directly to his employer and obtained photos, which he showed to the victim making her believe he was the culprit. Because of this misconduct, the victim falsely identified Anderson as the assailant, and this brought eyewitness misidentification into the realm of attributing factors of Anderson’s false…

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wrongful Convictions

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Eyewitness Misidentification alone is the greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in 72% of convictions. It’s unbelievable because research shows that memory is malleable and that an eye witness who is uncertain, can become much more certain over time. I also learned that when an eyewitness identifies a suspect it’s possible the police unconsciously provides information to them. Officers also try and use one suspect in multiple procedures with the eyewitness and that will increase the witness’s confidence to…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But, can have steady impacts on someone who did not commit a crime being accused. For instance, within our adversarial process, the role of bias plays a big part in how the case is run. Whether it be deeply ingrained biases growing up, or just a prejudice that came about from growing up it has immense repercussions on wrongful convictions. Next, is a huge factor that affects many wrongful convictions cases. That would be eyewitness identification. Eyewitness identification has some good factors but also many bad factors. For instance, we looked into many studies on how sequential lineups can reduce false identifications of innocent suspects by reducing eyewitnesses’ reliance on relative judgment processes (Lindsay & Wells, 1985, p. 556). But also how people struggle to recall a certain person they have maybe seen in another situation. Another topic that’s become a growing topic is forensic evidence misconduct/errors. Many aspects can go into the makings of forensic evidence misconduct/errors. Many researchers like to study the quality control and training. The growing concern is whether bias and beliefs can greatly affect the outcome of an expert interpreting information like finger…

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Firstly, the difficulty of proving someone is either guilty or innocent may cause one to be wrongfully convicted. One can be mistaken for another based on evidence that is invalid or irrelevant to the case. “A look-alike innocent person can be mistaken for the person who committed the crime”…

    • 1864 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In one case example involving eyewitness misidentification, a man named Walter served over twenty five years for a rape and robbery he did not commit. The prosecution's case against him stemmed from a seriously flawed eyewitness identification procedure that led to misidentification. A pregnant woman was…

    • 1563 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I always thought that eyewitness testimony was a bullet proof plan in the judicial system. I always thought that eyewitness testimony wasn't malleable. You would think that when you are being raped and you analyze the rapist face you will know exactly who it is. I never considered how a weapon can effect what the brain focuses on. But if I thought about it more it does make sense. Because your brain is in survival mode because there is a knife to your neck. Your brain is not focusing on remembering a face rather focusing on the knife and how to stay alive. Your brain is telling you to do and say certain things that the brain thinks will leave you alive and not dead. I was always certain that if anything like that happened to me I would be able…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays