Eyewitness Testimony Essay

Eyewitness testimony is a hot button issue in not only the criminal justice field but also the psychology field as well. It continues to be argued that this type of “evidence” is far too unreliable for the court room and can ultimately end up punishing the wrong person for a crime they did not commit. The influence of an eyewitness testimony cannot be denied as research has showed that, “adding a single prosecution eyewitness to a murder trial summary increased the percentage of mock jurors’ guilty verdicts from 18 to 72” (Leippe, Manion, & Romanczyk, p. 182, 1992). In the article discussed here, researchers will look into various age groups to see if age has an effect on the credibility of eyewitness testimonies while attempting to discern what certain cues build upon such credibility.

Information is the lifeblood of a criminal investigation. The ability of investigators to obtain useful and accurate information from eyewitnesses of crimes is crucial to effective law enforcement, yet full and accurate recall is difficult to achieve (Stewart, 1985). Such elicitation of complete and accurate recall from people is important in many aspects of life; specifically, eyewitness recall may determine whether a case is solved. Principle advocates of the cognitive interview (Fisher, Geiselman, Holland & MacKinnon,

There has been considerable interest and study in the accuracy or inaccuracy of the use of eyewitness testimonies in the current criminal justice system. Results collated by several studies add to the bulk of literature suggesting that the current usage of eyewitness testimony by the legal system is far from ideal. Currently, high emphasis is being placed on reviewing and reconsidering eyewitness accounts (Leinfelt, 2004). In particular, recent DNA exoneration cases have substantiated the warnings of eyewitness identification researchers by showing that mistaken eyewitness identification was the largest single factor contributing to the conviction of innocent people (Wells & Olson, 2003). In this essay, the use of eyewitness testimony in the criminal justice system will be explored, with a particular focus on the impreciseness of this practice.

Research studies in relation to eyewitness testimony have been going on for hundreds of years. A study done in 1999 by Marcus D. Durham and Francis C. Dane at Mercer University, looked at ways to assess prospective jurors’ knowledge of the factors that may influence eyewitness behavior. Those factors include topics such as race, memory processes, age, and stress. In addition, the researchers “compared students’

There are many factors to consider when psychologists and scientists are trying to figure out reliability of eyewitness testimony. The ability to recall or

The Effect of Hearsay Witness Age in a Child Sexual assault case” from the journal Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, authors Jonathan M. Golding, Mary C Alexander, and Terri L. Stewart discuss how jurors view hearsay witnesses and if the age of the hearsay witness effects their perception of the credibility of hearsay witness. A study was done with male and female participants, who read a fictional court case summary about a sexual assault. The court case summary involved a 7, 16, or 25-year-old hearsay witness testifying on behalf of a 6 or 15-year-old victim. (Golding, Alexander, Stewart, 1999) The case included the testimony of one primary witness, a hearsay witness, or a clinical psychologist. (Golding, Alexander, Stewart, 1999) The authors begin by explaining the purpose of child hearsay testimonies and when hearsay witnesses are permitted, “a child’s words are hearsay if (a) the child’s words were intended by the child to describe something that happened, (b) the child’s words were spoken prior to the court proceeding at which the words are repeated by someone who heard the child speak, and (c) the child’s words are offered in court to prove that what the child said actually happened.” (Golding, Alexander, Stewart, 1999) hearsay isn’t always permitted in order to keep the trail from becoming unfair. The authors discuss different studies that have been done on hearsay testimonies and whether these studies have shown hearsay to be reliable and warranted. One study that is described ended with jurors believing the hearsay witness just as much as the victim testifying on her own behalf, the reasons for this, as the article explains, is “the mock jurors may have seen the hearsay witness as a ‘surrogate who is simply retelling the child’s story’” (Golding, Alexander, Stewart, 1999) second jurors may feel the need to punish someone because sexual assault is seen as such a horrible crime, third the hearsay

Have you ever been a witness to a crime? Would you feel comfortable if prosecutors relied on your eye witness testimony alone for a conviction? According to “The Magic of the Mind”, eyewitness testimony which relies on the accuracy of human memory, has an enormous impact on the outcome of a trial. Eyewitness testimony is a legal term. During an eyewitness testimony, the witness usually goes into an account of the crime he or she has witnessed. This can include details of the crime or identification of perpetrators. Eyewitness testimony is an important area of research in cognitive psychology and human memory (simplypsychology.com). Eyewitness testimony can be affected by many psychological factors such as:

There are many different factors that play a part in the increased chance of a witness correctly identifying a suspect. Such factors should be brought to the attention of the jury and the judge to help in properly assessing whether a witness is correctly identifying a suspect. A study by Magnussen, Melinder, Stridbeck, & Raja (2010) found that of the three different types of people: judge, jury, and general public, that for the most part all where fairly ill-informed on the reliability of eyewitness testimony with judges having the most. Judges only had about an 8% difference in knowledge when compared to jurors. With this information it is very clear that education on the reliability of eyewitness testimony needs to become more of a general knowledge information for the everyone, especially people who are involved in upholding the law. Another factor to look into when evaluating the accuracy eyewitness testimony is the role that memory plays. Memory is divided into three processes: perceiving, remembering, and recalling information (Simmonsen, 2013). There is plenty of room in all three of those stages to forget or falsely remember something. Some factors that play a part when a person perceives an event is the amount of time they are exposed to the event and the suspect. A study conducted by Horry, Halford, Brewer, Milne, & Bull. (2014) found that witnesses were increasingly more likely to correctly identify a suspect if they had been exposed to the suspect for sixty

Jo’ana Meyer is a sociologist at the Rutger’s University who has carried out valuable research on children’s susceptibility to leading and suggestive interviews in the context of court testimony. She has discussed the effects of stress, prompting and imagination on children’s memories and powers of recall. She stresses the importance of Milgram’s research and points out that children are likely to obey authority at an even higher level than the adults in Milgrim’s experiments. Meyer has made important suggestions about ways to interview children that would increase the accuracy of their testimony. (“Meyer’” Inaccuracies in Children’s….).

A child is competent and capable to give sworn evidence, if they have the ability and mental capacity of understanding that they are under a duty to provide truthful evidence. However, this could cause many inconsistencies, as a child in their own particular nature, do not have the full capacity compared to an adult. It was held in the case of MK v R (2014) that questions like ‘do you know why it’s important to tell the truth?’ was considered inadequate to determine whether or not the child has a full understanding of the test found under s 13(3). For this reason, the use of specific and unpretentious terminology is necessary and a must when cross-examining children.

Over the last thirty years, the idea of children as witnesses and the accuracy of their testimony has been widely debated. People are asking themselves if the memories of young children, specifically between the ages of five and ten, can be accurate and in return trusted. So, can children’s memory and testimony be accurate? Prolific amounts of research have been conducted in an attempt to answer this question. Most of the research suggests that unfortunately we can not rely on their accurate recall in testimony. I would have to say I agree with the findings.

Retrieved April 20, 2010, from Psychology Module. (Document ID: 1654425781). Eye Witness I.D. Policy Brief (November, 2008). The Justice Project. (1-28) Retrieved April 25, 2010 from TheJusticeProject.org.

Witness testimony is an essential part of court proceedings. Child witness testimony, like that of adult witness testimony can be very instrumental in revealing and portraying the events of a particular case. Over the years, the courts have gone to great lengths to ensure that child witnesses are protected and that their emotional damage is reduced when they do take the stands. Child witness testimony in many cases is just as important as that of adult testimony. Over the years, the use of child as witnesses has evolved in many different ways. This evolution of children witnesses was definitely needed.

My ID number for this study was 400602 and I was part of the control group. On the first day I had 8 hits, 2 missed 0 false alarms and 10 correct rejections. The second day I scored approximately the same with 9 hits, 1 miss, 1 false alarm and 9 correct rejections. My first composite score was .95 and then .944 on the second day.

London, a well-known local in the San Francisco Bay Area, his narrative “Story of An Eyewitness’ argues that in times of tragedies, is able to link communities together while maintaining diligence and respect. His purpose is to grant people the knowledge about the tragedy of the 1906 earthquake and to show spirited natives resilient to the earthquake. He writes in sympathetic tone to show his attitude towards the earthquake. London is able to fulfill his argument by showing the dying city, melting everyone to its core and how people are reacting to it.