Eyewitness Case Study

Throughout history, eyewitnesses have always played an important role in criminal justice system. The job of the eyewitness is important because sometimes those witnessing a crime may be the only evidence police may have to go on. Because this may be the case sometimes, it is crucial that the eyewitness do the best they can to pick out the suspect who they believe committed the crime. Unfortunately, however, the memory of the eyewitness may not always be at is best and they may forget a few details of what the criminal looked like or may have forgetting everything about the criminal in general. Some of the things that may affect an eyewitness’s memory during the crime are the amount of stress or emotional arousal they were in. Some studies

There were four different types of scenarios which were created by using virtual reality. There were two locations where the scenarios took place. One scenario took place in a classroom, which is supposed to be where the unexpected crime took place. The other scenario took place in a meat market, which is supposed to be where the expected crime took place. In ever scenario, there is a women who is the victim, and the butcher who is the criminal. The first scenario had the butcher and woman in a classroom having a friendly conversation with the women. The second scenario had the butcher in the classroom threatening the woman. The third scenario had the butcher and woman in the meat market having a friendly conversation. The fourth scenario had the butcher threatening the woman in the meat market. At the beginning of the study, the participants asked to sign a consent forum and then take a STAI questionnaire, which was used to measure the level of anxiety the person was feeling. After the questionnaire, they then were given the virtual reality headset, which they practiced using until hey had gotten use to it. Once they had gotten use to it, they were then put in one of the four conditions, which lasted about 2-3 minutes. After the simulation was over, the participants were asked to talk an arousal questionnaire, another STAI questionnaire, and a memory test. The arousal questionnaire measured both the perceived threat and arousal of the participant and the memory test was an open ended about the environment, situation, characters, and the weapon. After they were done filling these out, they thanked and let go. The results showed that participants from the expected threat and unexpected threat scenario experienced threat from the scenario, felt arousal, and felt high levels of anxiety. Participants from expected non-threat and unexpected non-threat experienced did not feel