Mohd. Khan 10/22/12 PY-101 Can You Trust an Eyewitness? Eyewitnesses are people who are present and observe the crime or event taking place. Before the discovery of DNA and forensic testing‚ most of the accusations in court were made by the eyewitnesses. But even now-a-days‚ the statement of an eyewitness is taken into first consideration when there is no forensic evidence available; it makes the case a lot harder to convict the criminal as eyewitnesses cannot be trusted in most occasions
Premium Psychology Eyewitness identification Criminal law
Eyewitness testimonies are commonly used when police are solving a crime. Eyewitness testimonies are an excellent source of information‚ but the witnesses may be easily read wrongfully by the interviewer. There are multiple factors that can cause the interviewer to read the eyewitness wrongfully. These factors include; when the interviewer does not word their questions carefully‚ when the interviewer uses leading questions‚ and when the interviewer presents the eyewitness with false information.
Premium Psychology Testimony Criminal law
Eyewitness and Emotions Eyewitness information is necessary for people to know when a crime has occurred‚ it is especially important to people who are in the criminal justice system (Jennifer Beaudry.‚ et la‚ 2013). One factor that could possibly affect the reliability of the testimony is the emotional experience that the witness had. Eyewitness often have a difficult time recalling what the person looks like who has committed the time. Researchers have questioned whether or not the negative emotion
Premium Crime Criminal justice Police
known as the misinformation effect‚ where misleading information distorts our memory of the true event. Important in a variety of aspects‚ these memory errors become especially crucial in terms of courtrooms and eyewitness testimony. Interestingly‚ 75% of false convictions are due to an eyewitness identifying the wrong person or misreporting how an event actually occurred. Witnesses aren’t intentionally committing these fallacies‚ but by relying on their misconstrued memory‚ they genuinely believe they
Premium Psychology Cognition Memory
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
Premium Crime Law Police
Validity of eyewitness testimony Eyewitness testimony are accounts given by an individual about the details of an event that may include‚ what the perpetrator was wearing or physical description of the person ‚ in what direction did the person run‚ details of a crime scene of a accident etc..‚ but can the eyes lie? Eyewitness testimony has been recognized as the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the U.S and because of this there are organizations in place such as the innocent project‚ which
Premium Crime Criminal law Police
Eyewitness testimony rely only on people’s memory‚ In my research I am going to discuss the age of the eyewitness‚ reconstructive memory‚ weapon focus‚ anxiety‚ types of questioning‚ and different studies that have been conducted on these areas. Earlier I mentioned the pros and cons of eyewitness testimony and wanted to go into further details with that. Pros: 1. It can shed light into the sequence of the events that constitute the crime. The eyewitness testimony supports the lawyers and the
Premium Psychology Criminal law Crime
Extensive research has explored whether a suspect’s facial features can influence an eyewitness’ identification decision and how this may affect lineup construction. The two main issues are: how particular facial features can influence an identification decision and how the suspect’s features are distinctive compared to other fillers within the lineup. Research has found that identifying members of a different race is more difficult than those of one’s own race (Alley & Schultheis‚ 2001). It also
Premium Eyewitness identification
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
Premium Psychology Memory Cognition
This study is a replication of a study by Loftus and Palmer in 1974. The aim of the study is to test the effect of leading questions in eyewitness testimonies and how reliable the account of the witness is. The experiment uses two groups which receive two different verbs‚ ‘smashed’ and ‘contacted’. The method consists of an independent measure design. The independent variables are the way the words are phrased in the questions‚ while the dependent variable is the estimation made by the participants
Premium Question Eyewitness identification Testimony