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…
After watching How reliable is your memory? by Elizabeth Loftus, I believe that to a great extent, memory is not a reliable source of knowledge because it can be distorted, contaminated, and even falsely imagined. Memory decay, distorted memory, hindsight bias, consistency bias, the availability heuristic bias and suggestibility- are all problems that beset our reliance on memory.“I was there. I saw it.” The phrase that many witnesses confidently use in courts of law- to generally support or…
To begin, Gomberg argues that a normal human life and reliable knowledge of the world around us requires us to have two virtues: we must trust what others tell us; we must be modest about what we believe ourselves to know when we recognize we may be wrong. Either we trust what someone is saying, or we deny it and doubt it. In today’s world, most people find it very hard to believe what another person is saying. They’ve came to know their own beliefs and what they believe to be true or not. A lot…
Identity theft is a problem that is effecting more and more people every year, a report released by Michael Keenan shows that an average Australian household is 16 times more likely to be effected by identity fraud then it is to be effected by a robbery, this same report also indicates that people are becoming less concerned about identity crime, however with fraud incidents increasing by 30,000 from 2014 to 2015 and misuse of identity increasing by almost 20,000 from 2014 to 2015 it is best to…
The accuracy of an eyewitness is the essential part for the jurors’ decision making regarding a particular case. The jurors depends on the eyewitness for an accurate statement of the testimony that is being presented. There are many wrong convictions throughout the legal systems and many factors that comes into play, but the eyewitness has the highest percentage for wrong misidentification. Therefore, research has been done to help improved the accuracy of the witness testimony. The three best…
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…
Abstract Inattentional blindness (IB) has been a confounding phenomenon of the failures of visual awareness and memory for decades, leaving researchers to debate the extent to which individuals experience the inability to see the unattended. The present study examined the relationship between the effects of IB and expert testimony on the credibility of witnesses in the courtroom. Results indicate that regardless of the presence of expert testimony, the witness who saw the crime was rated…
For instance, the discrepancies in the male victim’s identification points out a major flaw in eye witness testimonies. This cause of error is inaccuracies presented by external factors such as bad eyesight, duration of observation of the perpetrator and circumstances of the location. The bad eyesight of a witness as seen in the case study can be the cause for uncertainty in the identification process. Factors of the crime could also present issues. If the witness only saw…
This article, written by Rose and Beck (2016), examine the accuracy of eyewitness identification and find out the physical distance from the crime which they witnessed as well as the length of time between witnessing the crime and successfully identify the perpetrator. Rose and Beck have found out that some researches have argued that false memory and advise can influence the result in people giving testimony about the crimes they have not eyewitnesses. Therefore, the primary aim of this study…
Due to different media forms, New Zealand has experienced numerous transformations over time. There is a range of different media forms such as television and print media, however radio is an important one to be discussed, along with the negative impacts it has brought through the transformations. The transformations include deregulation, privatization and commercialization. It is important to consider how these transformations have then in turn negatively affected the media’s ability to…