Eyewitness testimony

witness’s memory, but also by social perception. Other variables that moderate eyewitness memory can be categorized as commonplace variables, however others are specific biases based on the suspect’s characteristics (Brewer & Wells, 2011). Since the advent of DNA testing, 258 people convicted by juries in the United States have been released, with approximately 200 of these cases being the result of mistaken eyewitness identification. With cognitive and social perspectives, this study simply…

television shows depicting the criminal justice system, an eyewitness is shown picking a culprit out of a police lineup. However, what movies and television shows do not address is how often mistakes are made with eyewitness identifications. In actual police lineups, eyewitness accounts are relied upon in our criminal justice system as a key tool to identify, convict, and charge individuals. The hope is that these identifications are accurate. Eyewitness identifications have been shown to…

absolute and relative judgments in eyewitness identification." Law and Human Behavior 35 (5): 364-380. Accessed September 14, 2016. doi: 10.1007/s10979-010-9245-1. This peer-viewed report, published in the Law and Human Behavior journal, the official journal for the American Psychology-Law Society compares the two decision-making models of judgement, relative and absolute using the WITNESS model (a computerised memory and decision-making model that produces eyewitness response probabilities) in…

that many witnesses confidently use in courts of law- to generally support or undermine the position of the perpetrators involved- that is entirely based on their memory of the past. Yet recently, experts have agreed upon the conclusion that the testimony of eyewitnesses in court is unreliable. Why would these so-called experts come to such an abrupt conclusion?…

Eyewitness Identifications play a major role in convictions. However sometimes the reliability of an eyewitness identification can have questionable accuracy. With Eyewitnesses being wrong for as many as one in every four, they are still considered one of the primary pieces of evidence against a suspect. An Eyewitness in court Identifying a possible suspect is one of the most strongest pieces of evidence to convince a jury. The only thing that can convince a jury more then an individual actually…

great job, I only have one suggestion for Holloway, elaborate more on eyewitness testimony. As Holloway pointed out, eyewitness testimony plays a significant role in sending innocent people to prison (Holloway, 2015). Yet, I feel that she only vaguely covered the topic. Because eyewitness testimony is a major component of the American criminal justice system, Holloway should have better emphasized the faultiness of eyewitness…

Eyewitness Identification The California Innocence Project website states that eyewitness misidentification is a primary cause of wrongful convictions. Up to a quarter of eyewitness identifications in cases of strangers are incorrect. Despite the high rate of error in eyewitness identification, eyewitnesses can provide the most damning evidence against a suspect. Several reasons explain the high error rate in eyewitness identification. One reason is the stress and anxiety that individuals feel…

Some would argue that “the single greatest cause of wrongful conviction is erroneous eyewitness testimony,” this is due to procedures such as suggestive pretrial identification procedures, like in the rape case of Jennifer Thompson versus Ronald Cotton, who said she “knew that she was right because, during the rape, she had studied his eyes, his…

their respective cases. Most significantly, however, was the fact that CSI – and shows like CSI – feature heavily simplified court scenes. These scenes present incomplete portrayals of the legal system to viewers, where they see emotionally-charged testimonies that instantaneously incriminate perpetrators and win cases. Initially, with only CSI on the air, there was perhaps little concern…

From what I have concluded from the two articles listed below, I do not think eyewitness testimony is a reliable source nor should it be used to convict someone simply because mistakes can be easily made. (Clare) 2012 states that mistakes can often be made due to high stress levels, the act of seeing violence and even the display of a weapon can alter a memory of who the witness truly is. Another major issue with misidentification has to do with different racial profiles, seeing other people at…