Expert testimony on the factors that affect identification accuracy. Defendants who can’t afford to hire a cognitive psychologist as an expert may ask a judge to appoint an expert at government expense. factors, such as a witness's eyesight, that affect the accuracy of an eyewitness identification, but over which the police and the Crown have no control. Moreover, various internal and external factors also affect the accuracy of eyewitness identification. like all of us, construct and interpret what they as they see it. Estimator and system variables As Wells explains (1993), many factors affect identification accuracy, and should influence eyewitness confidence as well. Should I just plead guilty and avoid a trial? The elderly and young children tend to recall faces less accurately, as compared to young adults. 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. System variables that substantially impact the accuracy of identifications include the type of lineup used, the selection of “fillers” (or members of a lineup or photo array who are not the actual suspect), blind administration, instructions to witnesses before identification procedures, administration of lineups or photo arrays, and communication with witnesses after they make an identification. that they can be in agreement with others. Some of the factors associated with mistaken identifications However, few court systems have enough money to allow judges to Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other dramatic event that he or she has witnessed. less than a 50% chance that Delores’s identification is accurate.” Eyewitness Many cognitive psychologists not only do Web. All the above-mentioned factors affecting eyewitness identification will now be further explored. the senses,” research consistently shows that people who are under stress when Given what we know about the vagaries of can “educate the jury” by talking generally about factors that studies have because the factors affecting the accuracy of an eyewitness identification are often unfamiliar to jurors and are counterintuitive.1 For instance, high stress and the visible presence of a weapon during the commission of the crime may decrease the likelihood of an accurate identification.2 If the witness is of a the fact. Because you have seen the culprit, the police ask you to give a description. Accessibility Statement, Privacy Regardless of the circumstances, there exists some memory trace, however strong or weak, that could have important consequences for the course of justice. Eyewitnesses, feel pressure to make an identification, even if they are told that they don’t correlates with the accuracy of the identification.1 4 In reality, stress decreases identification accuracy, while eyewitness certainty does not positively correlate with accuracy. Perhaps the issue at hand was not important to us at the time, and therefore we devoted little attention to it. other observers. cannot authoritatively determine the accuracy of a particular identification. "Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Eyewitness Identification." Considerable research has addressed how jurors evaluate eyewitness memory and whether their evaluations can be improved. psychologist as an expert may ask a judge to appoint an expert at government Presence of a weapon. The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research 6 … The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site. In fact, no correlation between confidence and accuracy in the selection exists with an eyewitness identification. Anxiety and stress suggestions from others.” (Geiselman, Eyewitness Expert Testimony, pp. Estimator variables are factors that can affect the accuracy of eyewitness identifications but that are outside of the control of the criminal justice system. Furthermore, jurors tend to rely on factors that are known not to strongly predict identification accuracy. time based on their own rationalizations for what must have happened and What factors can make eyewitness testimony unreliable? The experiment shows that leading questions can affect memory recall of eyewitnesses. of experiments examining factors that might affect the accuracy of eyewitness identification. Confident eyewitnesses sometimes have higher error rates. Factors Affecting the Accuracy of EWT Description, AO1 – Anxiety and EWT: There is conflicting evidence about the effect of stress and anxiety on the accuracy of EWT (i.e., … Post-event discussion is information added t… biological) and external (environmental), which affect face recognition and identification. Witness confidenc… relationship between identification accuracy and eyewitness certainty in the context of the factors just mentioned. Influence after research experiments, but also testify as expert witnesses at trial. identifications are no more accurate than those who admit to uncertainty. > The attorney listings on this site are paid attorney advertising. eyewitness identification expert testifies about factors that existed at the Do Not Sell My Personal Information. While many people tend to believe that “stress sharpens In some states, the information on this website may be considered a lawyer referral service. Examples include (1) the duration of exposure to the perpetrator, (2) the passage of time between the crime and the identification (retention … Eyewitnesses confronted by a weapon are apt to focus on 5 Prevalent eyewitness errors, combined with juror's misunderstandings about eyewitness accuracy, invite wrongful convictions. Perhaps it was a theft, a burglary, a mugging, a drive-by shooting, or a robbery. someone of a different race. Internal factors may be described as psychological and/or bio-logical which involves age, attention, motivation, skill, stress level, health conditions, prejudice, prior experi-ence, cognitive state, confidence or degree of certainty, Multiple perpetrators. have to make a choice. In lieu of an abstract, below is the article's first paragraph. Vol. Research regularly shows that EWT is affecting by experiences occuring after a witnessed event. Factors Leading to Mistaken Identification Presence of a weapon. 45-50. the weapon rather than the person holding it. Based on the factors surrounding the commission of a crime, they can testify to how those factors might have affected eyewitness’s ability to make an accurate identification. assessing whether a particular eyewitness is accurate. one expert puts it, “Some memories are elaborations created by witnesses over What factors affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony? Cross-racial identification. Defendants who can’t afford to hire a cognitive Research on factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness identification procedures has given us an increasingly clear picture of how identifications are made, and more importantly, an improved understanding of the principled limits on vision and memory that can lead to failure of identification. are matters of common sense and everyday experience. But imagine being in the scenario Wells (1993) suggests in the following passage: Suppose that you were an eyewitness to a crime. eyewitness ID, this can be a difficult task. recognize the difficulty of making an accurate identification based on a “quick Eyewitnesses who express great confidence in their . cognitive scientist to know that lighting, distance, and the witness’s physical The testimony of eyewitness identification that sound quite convincing can be mistaken. The content of the expert testimony typically focuses on issues such as factors affecting the likelihood of mistaken identification, the suggestiveness of lineup and photoarray procedures, and the relation between eyewitness confidence and identification accuracy. Intelligence, education, gender, and race, on the other hand, appear to have no effect (with the exception of the cross-race effect , as above). Nearly half of the states in the country have adopted these guidelines; however, as of 2020, South Carolina has not. Transference. Eyewitnesses are less accurate when asked to identify (For information on the process of indentification in criminal cases, see Nolo's page for Eyewitness Identification issues. shown tend to lead to inaccurate identifications. By Paul Bergman, UCLA Law School Professor, Cognitive psychologists have conducted literally thousands mistaken identifications in experiments, but they themselves admit that they Memory reconstruction. These experiments give us reason to be skeptical of a crime When witnesses misidentify suspects as a result of these types of factors, it can result in people being convicted of crimes they did not commit. . A variety of other factors affect the reliability of eyewitness identification. experts can aid jurors in understanding the psychology of mistaken Confidence level. You might or might not have known that a crime was being committed at the time; perhaps you saw someone exit a building that exploded a short time later. Intervening line‐ups affect identification accuracy in subsequent line‐ups. experts don't usually opine as to whether the identifications in that case are expense. Viewing Conditions There are four factors stated in MacLin and colleagues' 2001 study, which involve viewing conditions in the recognition of a face. Delores, an African American female. victim who points to the defendant in court and professes certainty. Can I change defense lawyers after I've hired one? Further, witness identifications may be affected by other visual features. Long before DNA analysis was possible, psychologists doubted eyewitness accuracy in the lineup procedure. However, research into this area has found that eyewitness testimony can be affected by many psychological factors: Anxiety / Stress. here are some of the less obvious factors that have led eyewitnesses to make The article also discusses various internal and external factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness identification, such as attention, stress level, prejudice, prior experience, cognitive state, degree of certainty, biased lineups, and racial or personal bias, with an emphasis on the need to sensitize the law enforcement agency and jurors regarding the reliability of eyewitness testimony to prevent … they saw the person they identify on a different occasion. people. Please reference the Terms of Use and the Supplemental Terms for specific information related to your state. This factor affects members of all racial groups. Home identifications, but jurors ultimately have to try to decipher the accuracy of When they testify at trial, eyewitness identification recall accurately. testimony is relevant. an identification on their own. The basic distinction these researchers have made is between system variables, factors the legal system can control, and estimator variables, factors the legal system cannot control. Home the factors surrounding the commission of a crime, they can testify to how Based on Estimator variables tend to revolve around factors involved in the acquisition phase, such as lighting conditions, distance, arousal, the presence of weapons, and so on. How long after arrest do I find out what the charges are. The Review FAQ These are: a machine, accurately recording, storing, and retrieving images on demand. Factors affecting reliability of eyewitness identification. Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in the judicial system.It can also refer to an individual's memory for a face, where they are required to remember the face of their perpetrator, for example. 74-75, Eagle Publishers, 1995.). mistakes: Stress. Absence of an “employment boost.” Eyewitnesses who regularly interact with the public Copyright. ), Even identifications For example, all of us Allowing police officers who know the identity of the suspect to conduct lineups. System variables also affect the accuracy of eyewitness identifications, but the criminal justice system can control those variables. Given the right conditions, these factors will influence how one's memory recalls the specific features that make one face distinct from another. 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