Eyewitness Essay

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    Eyewitness accounts have long been used since the beginning of modern courtroom justice as evidence to condemn or liberate and eyewitnesses were once considered quintessential in proceedings. Recently, however, the accuracy of these types of accounts is being tested. Psychological and statistical research affirms that eyewitness testimony is inaccurate most of the time, whether significantly or partly, and many innocent people have wrongfully suffered because of these errors. For this reason, eyewitness

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    a cognitive process is reliable (22 marks) A specific process of which we must doubt the reliability of is the role of memory in eyewitness testimony. Eyewitness testimony is used as vital evidence in the legal system in order to convict criminals, however, it does rely on the reliability of memory, which has been a highly contested topic. Previously, eyewitness testimony has been a highly reliable source in the conviction process. It was trusted by courts of law and law enforcement, however

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    The Case of Cotton is one of the best which explains eyewitness misidentification and how eyewitness mistakes might happen. There are various factors which contributed to this faulty eyewitness identification. First, when Ms. Thompson was presented with the two images of Cotton to examine, after she had asserted that Cotton was the one, she asked the detectives “Did I do OK?” and the detectives responded, “You did great, Ms. Thompson.” The officers failed to take a confidence statement. That is

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    The Accuracy of an Eyewitness Testimony Student: Amy Mason Number: 2842657 Tutor: Serena Nicholls Tutorial Time: Thursday 10am - 10:50am Due date: Friday 21st September 21, 2012 Word count: 1858 Psychological research shows that eyewitness testimony is not always accurate, therefore it should not be used in the criminal justice system. Discuss. The reliability if an eyewitness testimony is questionable. The witness may be so certain that the person that thy are pointing out is one hundred

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    Eyewitness Testimony The use of the eyewitness testimony has always been viewed as one of the most reliable forms of evidence when it comes to the court system. Recently many cases have been brought up where the use of the eyewitness testimony has failed and put an innocent citizen into jail leaving the criminal on the loose and a threat to the population. This has caused eyewitness testimony to go from a reliable source to a controversial subject for many. The eyewitness testimony should not be

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    How Reliable Are Eyewitnesses? For decades the court system has relied on eyewitness and someone’s statement in a lot of criminal cases. Loftus, states “just because someone says something confidently doesn’t mean it is true” (Bohannon, 2014). How does the criminal system allow juries, lawyers, and eyewitness to be responsible for someone else life. I realize they have college degrees and they are trained. However, how many have people being wrongfully accused and there are criminals who received

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    The Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony Part 1 - How reliable is Eyewitness testimony? The Reconstructive nature of memory - Schemas and Stereotypes The reconstructive nature of memory is related to the schema theory. A schema is a package of memory that is organized and developed throughout our lives. Schemas are stored in long term memory. Most people have similar schemas and this was recognized by Bower, Black and Turner (1979) when they asked several people

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    finger, accompanied by the solidifying eyewitness statement “He’s the one!” is enough for a jury to make its final decision in a court case. Although it is understandable, when faced opposite of the individual creating the accusation, to place one’s belief in the accusation made, the credibility of the eyewitness’s account of events are rarely taken into consideration. Psychologists have taken part in research that recognizes the unreliable nature of eyewitness statements used to determine guilt because

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    As research shows, eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in 72% of convictions overturned through DNA testing. In this paper, I am going to revisit two cases that were affected by this striking procedure of eyewitness misidentification, efforts currently being made to address this problem, and my personal recommendations to minimize cases surrounding the topic illustrated in this paper. Although eyewitness testimony can be significant

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    Eyewitness testimony is defined as, “an area of research that investigates the accuracy of memory following an accident, crime, or other significant event, and the types of errors that are commonly made in such situations.” Much emphasis is placed on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony as often-inaccurate eyewitness testimony can have serious consequences leading to wrong convictions. Eyewitness testimony is a powerful tool within any field, particularly that of justice

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