Summary Of Eyewitness Testimonies And The Cognitive Psychology Chapter 16

Chapter 16 was a very intriguing section of reading mostly due to the fact that I am currently taking a criminal justice class. It is interesting to see the different perspectives of mental illnesses and disorders when comparing textbooks and material that I have learned from both classes. Most recently, I have conducted research on the validity of eyewitness testimonies and the cognitive psychology behind it. I also had the opportunity to interview Dr. Robert Belli, a professor at UNL that focuses most of his research on factors that affect the reliability of eyewitness testimonies such as the misinformation effect and recovered memory. When considering all the problems that are associated with human memory it is understandably flawed, but
when relying on memory information that occurred unexpectedly and quickly, it can be even more defective. Ultimately, invalid testimonies devastate the lives of innocent people.
According to an article regarding executions of innocent people, The Innocence Project reports that "Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions, playing a role in 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing." While this is a significantly high number, it’s important to question what innocent people have been subjected to the most severe penalty of all which is the death penalty. Innocent people residing in jail can be exonerated, but once an innocent person is exectuted, the damage cannot be reversed. This is why psychologists and criminologists alike have taken a close look at what can be done to insure more reliable testimonies from witnesses.