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How Accurate Are Eyewitnesses

(Loftus and Palmer 1974) Their study reinforces the notion that there are some fundamental errors in eyewitness testimonies, and these testimonies are often crucial in leading to convictions. Researchers have used the means of mock trials in an attempt to study the effects of eyewitnesses" testimonies. This particular study uses information that was provided by previous research conducted by Lindsay, et al. (1989), on perceived eyewitness confidence. Be a Juror focuses on the manipulation of the presence and credibility of eyewitnesses. In this experiment a computer is used as an apparatus in completing this study and is beneficial in that it helps in controlling the conditions that participants were exposed to. This study is important in that it assists law enforcement agents in obtaining the best and accurate eyewitness testimonies. It is also important for it shows that eyewitness testimonies are not always an accurate means in proving someone's innocence or guilt. .
             A study previously conducted by Loftus and Palmer (1974) helps to develop a guide for law enforcement agencies to follow. It is suggested from this study that leading questions can cause an eyewitness to distort memories forcing eyewitnesses to answer questions that they do not know, which leads them to guess. Other strategies developed from this study comprise of allowing the witness to volunteer information, avoid rapid firing questions, and keep questions open-ended. (Loftus and Palmer 1974) This study also helped to develop identification procedural guidelines that illustrated that police line-ups consisting of one suspect in a line up leads to a higher rate of misidentification. Another important guideline suggests including a line up filler section, consisting of people whom have similar characteristics as the suspect described by the witness. This in turn makes the identification more difficult but prevents the witness from focusing on one suspect due to a few physical factors.


Essays Related to How Accurate Are Eyewitnesses

1. Eye witness testimony

... into an eyewitness' mouth, making leading questions very dangerous. Participants were shown a film of a car accident (Loftus and Palmer 1974) and then given a questionnaire about the accident including the question "how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?" All the participants were asked the same question except that the word "hit" was exchanged for "smashed," "contacted," "bumped," or ... shows that the precise wording of a question can drastically alter the accuracy of a testimony. This research is important in developing new ways to question eyewitnesses so that there ...

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2. alien

... Project Saucer two months after ArnoldÆ' ­s sighting over the Cascade Mountains in 1947. Furthermore, Æ' ±the Fire FighterÆ' ­s handbook has 14 pages dedicated to how to control a disaster when a flying saucer crashes. Chapter 13 is entitled Æ' ®Enemy Attack and UFO Potential.Æ' ­Æ' (DeBow 1) To posses the knowledge of ... claims sincere, or merely a hoax. What about the FiremanÆ' ­s handbook, and visual/radar affirmation of UFOs by the military? In the FiremanÆ' ­s handbook there are Æ' ±14 pages dedicated to how to control a disaster when a flying saucer crashes, and ...

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3. Psychology of Eyewitness Testimonies

... consideration. This paper will present evidence to highlight the strengths and the weaknesses of employing eyewitness testimony in courts. Reconstructive memory is a fundamental theory that pursues to demonstrate how memory may be distorted by prior experiences of an individual. Barlett (1932 cited in Gross 2010) introduced this approach to explain that people interpret and reconstruct events by ... number of their errors would be considerably reduced. At the same time, real life cases show that although witnesses know the importance of their recall, their testimonies are not entirely ac...

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4. Eyewitness Memory

... activity, or other types of incidents. Though, some studies show that eyewitness testimonies very in accuracy depending on the person, anxiety level of the situation, or even conversing with other eyewitnesses after the incident. Depending on the situation, these factors can dramatically affect one's ability to recall the details of a crime or incident that may be very important to the police ... class. Two thirds of the group was made up of women. This adds some bias because of the emotion one contributes to the study. In this study the subjects are tested on how they feel about certai...

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5. Death Row

... objects of pity. Society must look to its compassionate side in order to function properly. It does not have to right to value one life more than another no matter how badly an individual has hurt another. Being angry with an offender just makes a situation worse (Honeyman & Ogloff, 1999, September 29). Perhaps the reason that the death penalty is still used ... the two groups. These studies also imply that no factors other than the death penalty affect a state's murder rate. That is why most studies comparing homicide rates to executions rates are not accurate (Vila & Morris, 1997, p.2...

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6. anti-death penalty

... objects of pity. Society must look to its compassionate side in order to function properly. It does not have to right to value one life more than another no matter how badly an individual has hurt another. Being angry with an offender just makes a situation worse (Honeyman & Ogloff, 1999, September 29). Perhaps the reason that the death penalty is still used ... the two groups. These studies also imply that no factors other than the death penalty affect a state's murder rate. That is why most studies comparing homicide rates to executions rates are not accurate (Vila & Morris, 1997, p.2...

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7. Gluposti

... he claims to have made the most careful and particular inquiries. Thucydides explains that the task of history is a laborious one, mainly because eyewitnesses of the same occurrences give different accounts. This could be because the witnesses each remembered the incident differently, or because the witnesses have an ... and it shall be so for all time. And men know that all mankind, if they are as strong as the Athenians, will do as they did- (qtd. Johnson 122). Thucydides is obviously accurate about men inheriting this rule of power even now. Evidence of this is shown all around the ....

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8. Death Penalty

... the same as capital murder? Both end in taking human life. Is rape and making love the same? Both may result in sexual intercourse. How absurd. Opponents' flawed logic and moral confusion mirror their "factual" arguments - there is, often, an absence of reality. The moral confusion of ... penalty costs, over time, 3-10 times more than life without parole. The $34,200 is conservative, if TIME Magazine's (2/7/94) research is accurate. TIME found that, nationwide, the average cell cost is $24,000/yr. and the maximum-security cell cost is $75,000/yr (as ... Appeals Judge Stephen Markman fi...

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9. Who Jesus Was to me

... in the Bible are absolutely critical. Many Christians say that eyewitnesses wrote the Gospels when in fact they were actually written at least a few decades after Jesus" death. How accurate can something be written from memory twenty to thirty years afterwards? How reliable is memory? Think about the demonstration teachers give on how twisted words get ... evidence over time. By this I mean that people ignore evidence against Jesus being the Son of God. Their faith is strong and therefore they are in a way being very close-minded. "The power of faith has so forcefully driven the minds o...

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