ipl-logo

Eyewitness Identification Essay

1228 Words5 Pages

Eyewitness identification is ineffective and unjust. Studies have shown that 40% of eyewitness identifications are wrong (Vrij, 1998). Eyewitness identification has great importance in the legal system. This requires the best eyewitness testimony procedure. This essay examines the three main types of eyewitness line-ups; the showup, the sequential and the simultaneous line-up. This essay draws conclusions as to which method the legal system should implement.
The showup is a suggestive procedure. A show-up is an identification procedure in which, the police present a single suspect to an eyewitness, then ask the eyewitness whether the suspect is the perpetrator. The showup is suggestive because the witness views the suspect, whilst the suspect are in police custody. (Behrman & Vayder, 1994). According to United States vs, Funches (1996) eyewitnesses believe that when an officer presents a suspect for …show more content…

For target absent line-ups, the sequential condition wrongly identified the suspect 18.3% of the time; compared with 35.0% for the simultaneous condition. Using a target present line-up, participants in the sequential condition identified the suspect 50% of the time. In the simultaneous condition, participants identified them correctly 58%.
Each line-up procedure affects the decisions of eyewitnesses. The show-up method is the least effective at correctly identifying suspects. They present suspects to witnesses, whilst in police custody. In addition, the time taken can drastically increase the rate of misidentifications. Therefore, they are not how eyewitness testimonies should be conducted. In the simultaneous line-up, witnesses overestimate their ability to make an identification, resulting in misidentifications. This is due the nature of judgements, promoted by the simultaneous line-up, relative

Show More
Related

Larry Youngblood Incident

964 Words | 4 Pages

Detectives emphasized to David that the assailant may or may not be in the photo line up. Detectives also "told him they had arrested the man who raped him, and asked him to pick the assailant out of a photographic lineup. " David then picked Larry Youngblood as his assailant out of the photo line up. Although the photo lineup that David was given was reliable many other parts of this case were not.

Read More

Second Trial Of Ronald Cotton V.

797 Words | 4 Pages

A police lineup identification was made by one of the victims. The flashlight that resembled the one used by the real assailant and the rubber from his shoe being consistent with the rubber found at one of the crime

Read More

Testimony V. Nealy: Lack Of Physical Evidence

721 Words | 3 Pages

Lack of physical evidence: Overall in this case there was a lack of physical presented. There were no conclusive DNA results in the case. There was no weapon recovered. The majority of the evidence presented in this case was circumstantial evidence produce by witness testimony.

Read More

Eyewitnesses: 60-Minute Segment Of Ronald Cotton And Jennifer Thompson

702 Words | 3 Pages

This week’s topic was very interesting to learn about how important eyewitnesses can be when a crime and accidents do occur. In the case that was presented in the 60-minute segment of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson is exactly how legal system can fail us when it comes to the eyewitnesses’ identification testimony and how a person’s perception and memory can be altered. The aspect of psychology and law research from this week’s course material is most relevant to the topic of perception and memory. The memory has different stages the first is encoding the process of entering perception into memory.

Read More

Ronald Cotton Eyewitness Testimony

878 Words | 4 Pages

He says that when a suspect is not in a line up, witnesses will tend to pick the most similar to the criminal. The two key properties of eyewitness testimony is that it is often unreliable and highly persuasive. Recognition memory is rapid so if someone takes longer than 10-15 secs then they are not using reliable recognition memory. Showing a photo one by one is more effective and accurate as it allows the victim to compare each photo to their memory rather than each other. A study person was undertaking whereby 300 participants viewed deliberately shaky footage of a man putting a bomb down an airshaft.

Read More

R V Green Youth Court Case Essay

1926 Words | 8 Pages

As stated earlier, the first point of identification is the police or any professional who may so be called to identify any vulnerabilities. After identification is done, information is sent to the next level for it to be captured and acted upon. After a decision is taken by the higher agencies like the crown prosecution service and witness protection and the court, the necessary measures are then applied with strong collaboration between or among the relevant agencies. Identification is thus a process and as was shown in R-v-Green Youth Court herein, even the most straight forwards decision like may be an issue and measures and assistance are not merely granted on the basis of

Read More

Anonymous Informer Case Study

611 Words | 3 Pages

Before Givens stopped Mr. Crowder, he verified Mr. Crowder and the blue truck, like the officer in White verified the suspect and the vehicle. Even though Officer Givens thought the pickup was black at first, Givens had known Crowder long enough that Givens most likely could correctly identify him ─ even at night. But, these facts could be considered mundane, like the facts corroborated concerning the defendant’s identity and car in Kennison. But, like the officer in White, Givens also corroborated the destination, and the presence of the third-party (the semi) the anonymous caller mentioned before the stop occurred.

Read More

Ronald Cotton Case Study

1428 Words | 6 Pages

Effects of post identification feedback on eyewitness identification and nonidentification confidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 334–346. Lindsay, R., & Wells, G. (1985). Improving eyewitness identification from lineups: Simultaneous versus sequential lineup presentations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 556–564.

Read More

Lineup Procedure In Criminal Cases By Paul Bergman

297 Words | 2 Pages

In the article “Lineup Procedure in Criminal Cases,” Paul Bergman is informing us on the ins and outs of criminal lineups. He states that lineups are not a more accurate way of an identification than showups or photo identification. Studies show witnesses are not more likely to accurately identify a suspect in a lineup than any other pretrial identification procedure. During a lineup, a prosecutor is usually present along with police officers. Attorneys can also be there representing the suspect that was charged with a crime.

Read More

Lauren Jervis Contribution To The Court Of Appeal (COA)

1529 Words | 7 Pages

Accordingly, this is recognised as one of the exceptions in paragraph 3.12. However, RS could argue that it would have served a useful purpose for the following reasons; Firstly, LJ’s identification is a substantial part of evidence to prove that RS was the suspect involved in the offence yet, it was not tested or questioned. Failing to do an identification parade is significant because witness David Cariss attended one but, failed to identify RS. However, because this is a case of recognition the risk is not that LJ would similarly pick out the wrong person at an identification parade but, that she was mistaken when recognising RS when witnessing the offence.

Read More

Investigators Will Provide Witness Instructions Before Presenting A Lineup

719 Words | 3 Pages

1. Investigators Will Only Use One Type of Identification Procedure Investigators may not show a lineup to a witness if that witness has already participated in any other identification procedure involving the same suspect. Exception: Investigators may use additional identification procedures if directed by a prosecutor. 2. Investigators Will Select Fillers for Lineups When choosing fillers, investigators will consider what level of description of the suspect has been provided by the witness(es) and select fillers who generally fit that description.

Read More

Cross-Race Identification Vs Cross-Race Identification

110 Words | 1 Pages

Own-race identifications are those in which people distinguish someone of the same race as their own. Cross-race identifications mean identifying individuals from a race different from our own. A comprehensive study, with 271 real court cases, was conducted in connection with these issues and the results revealed that witnesses pertinently identified 65% of the defendants who were of the same race as them. On the other hand, 45% of the defendants were identified who belonged to a different race than the witnesses. A further scientific study also indicates that own-race identifications are liable to be more precise, by 10 percent to 15 percent, than cross-race identifications (Eysenck and Keane

Read More

Eyewitness Testimony

1475 Words | 6 Pages

Margaret Kovera, a leading authority in the research of lineup administrations, there are several verbal cues and non-verbal cues that can influence a witness’s decision making with regards to a suspect identification. As Dr. Margaret Kovera has a social psychology background, her research focuses more on the social interactions in lineups as opposed to the usual cognitive approach to studying eyewitness identification. In Dr. Kovera’s interview she discusses what is referred to as the experimenter expectancy effect whereby experimenters may behave in such a manner that influences the behaviours of the participants in a study to fit the hypothesis of the experimenter. This premise correlates with Dr. Garry Wells view of lineups being experiments and when conducting a lineup, we should aim to protect suspects against mistaken identifications by trying to minimize or eliminate the types of biases that we try to remove when we are conducting scientific experiments. As Dr. Margaret Kovera exemplifies in her interview, one of the biggest issues in lineup procedures that result in false identifications is the various sources of contamination introduced to the witness by the lineup administrator, which ultimately parallels with the experimenter expectancy effect.

Read More

Essay On Incredible Eyewitnesses

960 Words | 4 Pages

Most cases where someone has been exonerated due to DNA retesting had a problem with eyewitnesses misidentifying the suspects. This is a problem that can change someone’s life forever. Misidentification of suspects is a flaw in the criminal justice system that can be addressed through more police training and increased help from the judges. Misidentification by the eyewitnesses and the police officers are current problems in the justice system. Suspects are identified by the eyewitnesses of the crime, but this can lead to some problems with who is identified.

Read More

Active Rape Crime Scenarios

234 Words | 1 Pages

When a suspect has unique features such as visible tattoos, scars or hairstyles, it can make the lineup process a little easier. I selected suspect number three who participated in a simultaneous lineup, where all people are presented at the same time. My choice was incorrect due to the fact that the suspect was not

Read More

More about Eyewitness Identification Essay

Related Topics

Open Document