Eyewitness In Criminal Justice

However, when the administrator tells the witness that the perpetrator might not be in the lineup, then that influences the witness to most likely not identify anyone and thus the witness is less likely to incorrectly identify any of those in the lineup (Kovera & Borgida, 1351). Thus, in regards to the knowledge of the lineup administrator, when they know who the suspect is and know if they are in the lineup or not then they can influence the witness’s identification process (Kovera & Borgida, 1351). As a result, Kovera and Borgida recommend that the administrators be blind as to whether the suspect is present or not in the lineup as to not interfere with the witness’s memory (1351).

Additionally, studies have shown that presenting the suspects

Context consists of such factors as emotion and environment, and it is necessary to recreate those factors in order to access the memory that has been naturally primed to be recalled in reference to them (Cutler, Penrod, Martens, 629). Thus, when addressing these identification errors made by eyewitnesses and when trying to fix them it is essential that the officials involved in the criminal justice system who are questioning the witnesses “reinstate the context surrounding an event” (Cutler, Penrod, & Martens, 629). In other words, eyewitness identification errors need to be fixed, as well as discrepancies of reliability and accuracy within a jury and among the jury members. Furthermore, authors Kovera and Borgida discuss how social psychologists are not allowed in the courtrooms even though that would be very beneficial as they can share the knowledge of these phenomena that can often lead to injustices (1376). Perhaps the first step to more forcefully addressing and working on these influential estimator and system variables as well as jury biases will be to change that rule. But for now the most important part is that the realization of these social psychological concepts becomes widespread enough so that it becomes second natural to be aware of any biases or misjudgments occurring as a result of them. In other words, there are many issues and errors that occur within the legal system due to these social psychological aspects, and they thus must be more widely acknowledged, addressed, and fixed for they have the power to change a verdict and thus possibly ruin a life if a suspect is falsely convicted as a