Psychological studies have contributed to our understanding that there are many factors that lead cases to be exonerated at court. Factors such as: eye witnesses, juries, false confessions and biases. Using studies from Peter J. van Koppen and Shara K. Lochun, and Tim Newburn, we can understand how unreliable eyewitnesses can be to a crime and how juries can be unreliable as a judging panel, respectively. Using Keith A. Findley’s research we can comprehend how false confessions and biases come to occur during the process of retrieving information to a court hearing. This essay will conclude that these four areas are the major reasons as to why perpetrators fail to be convicted at court. Eye witnesses can be the most important factor to a
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With over 1,300 witnesses and 2,300 descriptions total they found that seventy two percent of the descriptions were not useful. Out of the 43 features to describe available, the witnesses used mostly 8, with sex and height being the most mentioned. Achieving only eighteen percent of descriptions of the perpetrator the police were left to find the remaining 72 percent. Witnesses are not that helpful after all, leaving a huge gap for the perpetrator to be free. Another study by Elizabeth J. Marsh, Barbara Tversky and Michael Hutson shows that eye witnesses are not reliable sources of evidence in a court room. They thought about the process the witnesses go through, the crime, and the questioning from the police, the lawyers, friends, family and possibly health care professionals. With each time they re-tell the events they might hold something back, depending on who they're talking to. They're vulnerable to a lot of negative reactions and they're scared that it could change relationships with close ones so they might leave some details out. With that being said, the brain no longer refers to the event as a source of memory, but the last time they though about it, so they could have distorted their memory or it could have been contaminated (applied cognitive psychology). Eye witnesses should be an advantage due to them being able to tell exactly what happened but with their being so many ways to easily distort or contaminate their memory they can be come unreliable and can lead cases at court to have a lower chance of conviction, however not only the eye witnesses cause cases to be exonerated, the juries have a lot of factors surrounding them which cause them to get things
With over 1,300 witnesses and 2,300 descriptions total they found that seventy two percent of the descriptions were not useful. Out of the 43 features to describe available, the witnesses used mostly 8, with sex and height being the most mentioned. Achieving only eighteen percent of descriptions of the perpetrator the police were left to find the remaining 72 percent. Witnesses are not that helpful after all, leaving a huge gap for the perpetrator to be free. Another study by Elizabeth J. Marsh, Barbara Tversky and Michael Hutson shows that eye witnesses are not reliable sources of evidence in a court room. They thought about the process the witnesses go through, the crime, and the questioning from the police, the lawyers, friends, family and possibly health care professionals. With each time they re-tell the events they might hold something back, depending on who they're talking to. They're vulnerable to a lot of negative reactions and they're scared that it could change relationships with close ones so they might leave some details out. With that being said, the brain no longer refers to the event as a source of memory, but the last time they though about it, so they could have distorted their memory or it could have been contaminated (applied cognitive psychology). Eye witnesses should be an advantage due to them being able to tell exactly what happened but with their being so many ways to easily distort or contaminate their memory they can be come unreliable and can lead cases at court to have a lower chance of conviction, however not only the eye witnesses cause cases to be exonerated, the juries have a lot of factors surrounding them which cause them to get things