Eyewitness Testimony Essay

Eyewitness testimony is the evidence given in a court or in police investigations by an individual who has witnessed a crime or offense (Loftus, 2003). Eyewitness testimonies rely heavily upon a human’s memory. “Given the complex interaction of perception, memory, judgment, social influence, and communication processes that lead up to an eyewitness’s story of what happened, it should hardly be surprising that such testimony often is a faulty version of the original event (Wells, 1987)." Eyewitness testimonies play an intricate part within the Criminal Justice System. In some cases, a jury may tend to evaluate what witnesses say more favorably and associate confidence level with how accurate their identification can be held in a court of law (Bradfield & Wells 2000).

Causes of False Eyewitness Testimonies

One of the primary reasons that errors in eyewitness testimonies are the leading cause of wrongful convictions is because it can be used as one of the most powerful pieces of evidence presented in a court against a defendant (Wise, Fishman & Safer, 441). In some cases, eyewitness accounts can be the only or primary evidence presented. This adds to the dilemma of eyewitnesses testimonies because it is hard not to take their word for it. “For instance, a 1987 study estimated that there are 77,000 criminal trials each year in the United States, the primary or sole evidence against a defendant is eyewitness testimony” (Wise, Fishman & Safer, 442). There are numerous reasons eyewitnesses may make a mistake in their accounts. One is human memory error, humans make mistakes their memory is not perfect. Another reason is eyewitness bias, which states that an eyewitness is influenced by factors like: their expectations, attitudes, knowled...

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...oing when they contacted each other?” Depending on which adjective she would use she would get a wide variety of answers. When she used the adjective smashed on average they would say 40.8 miles per hour, when contacted 31.8 miles per hour (Loftus, 2003). This relates to eyewitness testimonies because depending on how the questions are addressed, it can affect someone’s answer to what happened in the situation. This method is now widely used in law enforcement agencies when questioning an eyewitness.

Conclusions

Due to the complexity of eyewitness testimonies it can be extremely difficult for eyewitnesses to choose who they see as the offender. Previous research studies support that how questions are addressed can affect a witnesses responses. It also, supports that eyewitnesses will likely pick someone even if the individual is not 100% sure who the offender was.