Eyewitness testimony

Eyewitness identification relies upon the eyewitness memory and the ability for him or her to retain that information and reporting it straight to the police. Memory is considered as evidence because information is being gathered and encoded in memory. Over time the storage holds in the encoded information in the brain until retrieval occurs so the brain can have access to the information. Although memory is not accurate, errors can occur throughout the process of encoding, storage, or retrieval…

The study conducted under Lentini and DeHaan highlights that investigators cannot use patterns as a method to establish how a fire started. This is what caused arson investigation to be described as needing “much more research on the natural variability of burn patterns and damage characteristics” (NCJRS, 2009). This means that arson experts cannot simply look at patterns to determine its origin because there is still a lot unknown about arson and fire patterns in general. This is a common…

This literature review and analysis will define the impact of stress/trauma and the positive effect of supportive interviewing for children’s eyewitness identification. The studies done by Rush et al (2014) and Hritz et al (2015) identify the impact of stress on the child, which can be reduced through the supportive guidance of well-informed adult interviewers in the identification of suspect in a line up. These findings provide empirical evidence of the supportive environment that is needed to…

To what extent can we rely on sense perception and memory as ways of knowing? My short-term memory has never been something to be praised, I was asked what I had for lunch three days ago, I sat there momentarily thinking about the lunches that I had over the previous days, after a little while I told the person that asked me that I could not answer. I have always had greater confidence in my long-term memory, I generally find it to be more accurate and easier to recall than more recent memories…

The idea of simple living was both widely promoted and discouraged from the arrival of the earliest Puritan colonists in 1630 to the extensive industrial growth of the middle 1800s. Many groups and societies aimed to resurrect the simple life and promote it among the masses. Yet each of these revivals were either stopped or drastically slowed down by the American majority’s desire for wealth. A small percentage of Americans consistently lived interpretations of the simple life but they were…

witnesses play a huge part in determining who they saw at the scene of the crime. People have been wrongfully accused of crimes that they did not commit just because they have some of the same features as the actual suspect. The courts see eye witness testimony as a crucial factor into determining who has committed the crime. One way that humans tend to memorize things is by seeing the resemblance between things that we are just witnessing and things that we have seen in the past. People will…

The videos clearly show and explain how the eye witness statement can have an impact on the investigation as well as false information being entered into court, which can lead to false conviction. In the first video, almost every interviewee had a different answer, the only thing that was repeated was; “He had a black jacket, wool hat, and he was all”. When the interviewer asked about the hair colour, the interviewees came up with a bunch of different answers. I think this is a perfect example…

After watching the videos supplied, there are valuable lessons and techniques that are learned about questioning eye witnesses. Learning about the specific questions to ask an eye witness can be a curtail asset to an investigation. When someone witnesses a crime for the fist time, it can be shocking on that person. What they have seen and what they believe they saw can be totally different. In the interview stage with that witness, I learned that is is sometimes important to being with open…

122). But how exactly can an eyewitness give the wrong information about a suspect or a crime, and most importantly, why? Eyewitness can play a fundamental role in identifying a suspect, convicting him/her, and charging. But not all of them are always right. Typically, the eyewitnesses are asked to identify the suspect in a photograph or police line-up. The crucial role here plays the officer, who should choose the fillers for the fair lineup, and give the eyewitness instructions before…

suspects of a crime. Most of these identifications are done through either a showup (where one suspect is shown to either a victim or a witness of a crime) or through a lineup (where several people are shown to a victim or witness at the same time). Eyewitness identification is not always accurate, however. Research has shown it is the leading cause of wrongful convictions. An individual's memory replies on perception, a highly selective neurological process that "is as dependent upon…