Is Eyewitness Testimony Too Unreliable To Trust?

Over time, the topic of whether eyewitness testimony should be used in the courtroom or not has been debated back and forth, with both sides making a valid argument. Over the years, thousands of people are accused of committing a crime that they were not involved in. As published by The Week, the article “Is Eyewitness Testimony too Unreliable to Trust?” states, “Every year, more than 75,000 eyewitnesses identify criminal suspects in the U.S., and studies suggest that as many as a third of them are wrong.” This is a very large number which brings attention to the consideration of limiting the process in which people people make accusations in the courtroom based on memory. These false accusations put innocent people in jail for years. Many people are unaware of how this can tragically affect a person’s life as well as their family’s. Eyewitness testimony is highly subjective and unreliable, it should be limited to significantly reduce flaws in the legal process.

It refers to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed.” An eyewitness may state that they saw a man rob a bank, for example. Eyewitness testimony is one of the many subfields of psychology. Mcleod says, “In the field of psychology, eyewitness testimony deals with cognitive psychology and human memory.” Eyewitness testimony is affected by many psychological factors and a proper understanding of these factors is necessary in order to create solutions for the problems that can be controlled. Mcleod concludes, “Many psychological factors can influence this such as anxiety or stress, reconstructive memory, weapon focus, and leading questions.” These factors have been heavily researched by many