Eyewitness testimonies have been a part of court cases for very long time. Along with evidence‚ testimony from a witness‚ could be what locks a criminal up for life. Sometimes where there is a lack of evidence‚ we can rely too heavily on the eyes of an eyewitness. What we see may not always be what actually happened. In moments of stress or traumatic situations‚ we may see things that really were not there. In many cases those who have testified‚ testified to what they believe they saw‚ but what
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Eyewitness Testimony as a source of reliable evidence In relation to cognitive psychology‚ is eyewitness testimony reliable in today’s judicial system? Word Count: 3944 ABSTRACT Is eyewitness testimony a reliable source of evidence in today’s judicial system? Many jurors tend to pay close attention to eyewitness testimony assuming that what they hear is exactly as it happened. They ignore the psychology behind remembering an event. Our brain is a complex structure and it is difficult to absorb
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hold the person who committed the crime responsible. The role of the eyewitness is endless; it could range from tasks like identifying the criminal‚ making a mug shot of the criminal and explaining the actions that happened (Frowd‚ et al‚ 2008). Although we use eyewitness to get information about what happened‚ the person’s memory is not always accurate (Odinot‚ Wolters‚ & van Giezan‚ 2012). Some factors that contribute to memory being fallible are misleading information while the witness is being
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Given the information that we now know about eyewitness testimony verses DNA science on page 440‚ this makes you stop and wonder about how many people have been wrongly imprisoned or put to death before DNA testing came along. From reading the article o page 440‚ it looks like the psychologists are using research to identify by showing individual pictures opposed to a police lineup; a person is most likely to choose an individual that may look close to the person that committed the crime. I think
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Ronald Cotton - Eyewitness Testimony Jennifer Thomas‚ a 22-year old college student from Burlington‚ North Carolina‚ was raped in her off-campus apartment on July 28‚ 1984. During the assault‚ Jennifer studied her rapist’s face and other characteristics in the case that she made it out alive. Thomas was able to escape and ran to a police station and with the help of a detective‚ she was able to make a composite sketch of the perpetrator. The rapist also managed to rape another woman a few blocks
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Two of which were eyewitness testimonies and the third to be an actual piece of evidence. Eyewitness testimony depends on the witnesses’ perceptions and cognitive bias about an event. The problem with this‚ a person’s evidence might be false which can change the scenario. One of them was from an elderly man who lived
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Eyewitness memory is often presented from a bias perspective due to the false suggestions that have been extracted from the interrogation. In contrast to the popular notion that most individuals would never forget the physical features of a perpetrator‚ it has become evident that most individuals are unable to correctly identify their perpetrator when tested. A great deal of research has been performed in regard to the circumstances that are often present with regard to memory adjustment. It is clear
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would an eyewitness testimony of a crime scene. In the first half of the investigation‚ Wallace teaches his reader how to be a detective. Initially‚ he tends to describe detective work like emphasizing the power of circumstantial evidence‚ the danger of presuppositions‚ and the critical use of abductive reasoning (distinguishing reasonability versus possibility). He later ties in the process with the Biblical writings‚ for example‚ he examines the characteristics of accurate eyewitness‚ to which
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affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. There are factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony such as emotions‚ fundamental attribution bias‚ face recognition in other races‚ leading questions and many more. An example of the affect factors such as leading questions can have on eyewitness testimonies is the Loftus and Palmed study (1974). It’s has been proposed that we store a series of incomplete memory fragments in our mind. When we need to recall a memory we unknowingly fill
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Running head: Eyewitness Testimony 1 The Effect of Cross-Examination on Eyewitness Testimony Abstracts Cross-examination increases the likelihood of eyewitness error. Preceding research indicates that while being cross-examined children alter a lot of their originally correct responses. An experiment conducted by Maras & Valentine (2011) describes in which the result of cross-examination on accurateness of adult eyewitness testimony was explored
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