A major role in criminal justice system with many crimes are eyewitnesses, they are vital in identifying, charging and convicting perpetrators of crimes.
There are numerous issues concerning child eyewitnesses in the criminal justice system, such as accuracy and reliability. A number of researchers have theorised that children assume that adults would not request a child to identify a target if they were not in the line-up. Children feel pressured to identify regardless of whether it was a correct identification. Mistaken identification made by child witnesses has a higher rate than with those that are adult witnesses, this is predictable with past research demonstrating that children ‘make more choices and prone to guessing’ (Lindsay, Pozzulo,
There are numerous issues concerning child eyewitnesses in the criminal justice system, such as accuracy and reliability. A number of researchers have theorised that children assume that adults would not request a child to identify a target if they were not in the line-up. Children feel pressured to identify regardless of whether it was a correct identification. Mistaken identification made by child witnesses has a higher rate than with those that are adult witnesses, this is predictable with past research demonstrating that children ‘make more choices and prone to guessing’ (Lindsay, Pozzulo,