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reliability of eye witness testimony
one factor that affects accuracy of memory
eye witness testimony essay
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Eye-Witness Testimony
Until now we have focused upon theoretical psychology that employ
methods that are removed from real life. Neisser was one psychologist
who criticized his fellow psychologists for concentrating too much on
theoretical concepts and ignoring the practical issues involved about
memory. It is memory from real life experiences that psychologists
must concentrate on and one aspect of this is known as the eyewitness
testimony.
Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony
-----------------------------------
It is without doubt that eyewitnesses to a crime are one of the most
important people to the police when trying to get a conviction but we
must remember that sometimes they can be un-reliable. Sometimes we
cannot recall the exact events that surround the incident or sometimes
it can be distorted so that details are lost or inaccurate ones added.
In real life it is not necessary to precisely recall specific things
in order to use them in every day life e.g. we do not need to remember
exactly what a 10p piece looks like in order to use it to buy a sweet.
In other words there are many areas in everyday memory that we do not
need to recall exactly.
Reconstructive Memory
---------------------
Reconstructive memory basically means what affect the event had on us
rather than the precise details surrounding it. However we must
remember that reminiscing on particular events can lead to them being
distorted through our prior knowledge and expectations and so care
must be taken in dealing with reconstructive memory.
Bartlett (1932) carried out pioneering research in this field and it
was his findings t...
... middle of paper ...
...tion is viewed as un-reliable partly because of
the surprise element involved when witnessing a crime and partly
because the individuals are removed from the context in which they
originally witnessed the crime. It seems that in most crimes the face
of the perpetrator is not the focus of attention. In order to increase
the accuracy in which we recall things we need greater exposure to
them from different angles because our memory for familiar faces has a
more 3-D quality about it.
Eyewitness Summary
==================
Although it is possible under certain circumstances that people can
recall certain events vividly and in accurate detail eyewitness
accounts can be unreliable. It is therefore important for
psychologists to investigate the reason why inaccuracies arise and to
suggest ways they may improve.
The use of eyewitness statements and testimony’s can be a great source of information, but can also lead to wrongful convictions. Due to eyewitness testimony, innocent people are convicted of crimes they have not committed. This is why the wording of a question is important to consider when interviewing witnesses. Due to the fact that eyewitness testimony can be the most concrete evidence in an investigation, witnesses may feel they are helping an officer by giving them as much information as possible, therefore they may tell them information that is not entirely true, just to please them. This is why there are advantages and disadvantages to using open and close ended questioning at different durations of an interview. The way you word a question may impact the memory of a witness, this is because a person cannot completely memorize the exact occurrences of an event.
The use of eyewitnesses has been a constant in of criminal justice system since its very beginning. Unfortunately, people do not make the best witnesses to a crime. The person may not have seen the actual criminal, but someone that looks similar to them. The witness may lie about what he or she may have scene. Also the witness can be influenced by the police as to who or what they saw at the time of the crime. The witness or victims memory of the person may have faded so that they don’t remember exactly what had seen, which could be disastrous for the accused.
In the last forty years, there has been a shift in courtroom proceedings. Lawyers are not only focusing their evidence on the scientific aspects of an event, but also on those who may have witnessed the actual event as well. Recently, the number of eyewitness appearances in the courtroom has increased, making statements about either a crime or an event that occurred in their presence. But how does the courtroom decide who is a legitimate witness to an event? Too often, age, race, education, and socio-economics play a major role in this decision. Here, we will discuss the age aspect of this problem in terms of child eyewitness testimony and it's implications in the courtroom.
Memory is not reliable; memory can be altered and adjusted. Memory is stored in the brain just like files stored in a cabinet, you store it, save it and then later on retrieve and sometimes even alter and return it. In doing so that changes the original data that was first stored. Over time memory fades and becomes distorted, trauma and other events in life can cause the way we store memory to become faulty. So when focusing on eyewitnesses, sometimes our memory will not relay correct information due to different cues, questioning, and trauma and so forth, which makes eyewitness even harder to rely on. Yet it is still applied in the criminal justice system.
The situation that I have thought of is, when I was on the jury for juveniles who committed first offenses. While I was listening to the lawyers depend these kids, I looked on the list and saw a familiar name. The name was a person I went to kindergarten with. She was being convicted of shoplifting. I could not believe it. All the thoughts of that soft, kind-hearted person went out the window. My behaviors were changed by the environmental influences. My thoughts were overcome with coldness. I felt that she choose her situation. Somewhere along she became part of the wrong crowd and never changed her situation. I also think that the situation changed what I thought of her.
Eyewitness identification and testimony play a huge role in the criminal justice system today, but skepticism of eyewitnesses has been growing. Forensic evidence has been used to undermine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the leading cause of false convictions in the United States is due to misidentifications by eyewitnesses. The role of eyewitness testimony in producing false confessions and the factors that contribute to the unreliability of these eyewitness testimonies are sending innocent people to prison, and changes are being made in order to reform these faulty identification procedures.
Introduction: A robbery has been committed. Lucky for the investigating officers, there’s a room full of eyewitnesses. One by one they are interviewed meticulously. The investigators are seasoned officers with a great deal of expertise in this field. All the right questions are asked and all details are recorded correctly.
In the court of law, eyewitnesses are expected to present evidence based upon information they acquired visually. However, due to memory processing, presenting this information accurately is not always possible. This paper will discuss the reliability of eyewitness testimony, its use in a relevant court case, and how the reasonable person standard relates to eyewitness testimony.
Psychological research shows that eyewitness testimony is not always accurate, therefore it should not be used in the criminal justice system. Discuss.
did they see a barn (which was not in the incident). Only 2.7 % gave
Evidence provided in many courtroom cases can range from DNA samples, eyewitness testimony and video-recordings, to name a few. What happens when one of the main sources of information in a case comes from a child? Even worse, what if the child is the victim in the case? The topic of children participating and providing testimony in courtroom settings is an image that, presumably, most would not associate as a “usual” place for children. Yet in cases such as sexual abuse or violence towards a child or within the child’s family, it is not impossible to have cases where children are the predominant source of information provided for judges and jurors. Ref It is then important to consider the reliability of children’s testimonial accounts much like how adult testimonies are examined. The question of focus is then, to what extent can we rely on child eyewitnesses? Specifically, what factors influence the veracity of their testimonies?
Child witnesses have provided a basis for controversy over the years in criminal justice. There are two main things that people worry about when it comes to having a child witness, one is the anxiety that is put on the child with regard to the traumatic experience and the other is dependability of the testimony. Child testimony has long been considered an important part of the case but what is to be done when there are questions regarding legal, ethical, and professional ways to interact with the children.
During the identification and prosecution of a suspect, eyewitnesses are of the utmost importance. They provide crucial information that determines the fate of the criminal, whether their memories are true to the event or slightly altered. Many eyewitnesses, being the victims of these crimes, have strong emotions related to the event. It has been found that emotions play a role in the accuracy and completeness of memories, especially in eyewitness testimony (Huston, Clifford, Phillips, & Memon, 2013). When emotions are negative in content, accuracy increases for memory of an event (Storbeck & Clore, 2005; Block, Greenberg, & Goodman, 2009). This finding holds true for all types of eyewitnesses, including children. There is no difference in memory between children and adults for aversive events, suggesting that the child eyewitness is just as capable as the adult eyewitness to give an accurate testimony (Cordon, Melinder, Goodman, & Edelstein, 2012). For my research paper, I will focus on the role of emotion in children’s eyewitness testimony.
Eyewitness testimony is defined as, “an area of research that investigates the accuracy of memory following an accident, crime, or other significant event, and the types of errors that are commonly made in such situations.” Much emphasis is placed on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony as often-inaccurate eyewitness testimony can have serious consequences leading to wrong convictions. Eyewitness testimony is a powerful tool within any field, particularly that of justice, as it is a readily accepted form of evidence that allows for convictions. However, Tests conducted by Loftus have shown an enormous swing from a non-guilty verdict, to guilty within the same case, simply through the introduction of an eyewitness. This alone displays the importance of eyewitness testimony, and accentuates the theory that jurors tend to over believe, or at least rely heavily on such accounts.
In criminal cases there are many people, tools, and techniques used to determine who the culprit of the crime actually is. One of most difficult, but useful thing to actually use in criminal cases are eye witnesses. Witnesses are those who were part the crime scene somehow, whether it be just seeing the crime occur or actually experiencing it. One would think that having a witness means that the case is automatically solved because someone was there to identify the criminal and in some cases this is true. However, when a cases actually has an eye witness they have to make sure that the person is telling the truth and is a valid source of information. This is one of major reasons why people think children don’t make proper eye witnesses. They believe that they are not capable of providing such vital information, solely on the fact that they are a child. It is true that maturity does play a vital role when determining if a witness is valid or not , but there have been many studies that have point out how some children can be as