criminal key question Flashcards
what is the KQ?
The use of psychological knowledge within society
Is eye-witness testimony reliable?
ao1 of the KQ
· Eyewitness testimony is information given to the police about what a witness to a crime remembers about the crime so needs to be consistent to ensure convictions are safe.
· Since 1970 346 cases of miscarriage of justice recorded in UK with 41% due to unreliable eyewitness testimony, showing that faulty EWT has a massive impact of individuals and society.
· Innocents Project have helped to release over 300 offenders some of which were convicted by false eyewitness testimony following post-conviction DNA testing showing EWT to be less reliable. It identified that 72% of wrongful convictions were partly or wholly due to eyewitness misidentification showing it is a key issue for society.
· Juries tend to rely on eyewitness testimony when coming to a verdict, especially if the forensic evidence is hard to follow or if there is no forensic evidence, then the EWT is more important so has a major impact of the verdict.
· Maximum compensation given to those who have been held in prison 10 year or more is 1 million pounds with all other wrongful convictions having a max payment of £500,000.
· 84 people were wrongly convicted between 2007-17 and 31 cases led to a retrial meaning false EWT can lead to huge costs to society (taxpayers money and compensation) since 2010 in Northern Ireland £9 million spent.
· Kirk Bloodsworth who in 1984 was convicted of rape and murder, the conviction resting mainly on 5 eyewitness account. After 9 years in prison, he was found to be innocent because of DNA testing.
describe reconstructive memory in relation to EWT reliability
Reconstructive memory – When an individual witness an event they may not remember all the
details or be able to describe the full event. In order to make sense of this information they might
rely on schemas to fill in the gaps which is likely to be based on assumptions and beliefs about
an individual or situation e.g. the perpetrator was male. This explanation is supported by
Bartlett’s study War of the Ghost which showed how pp’s adapted the story into something more
relevant to their culture.
Sutherland and Hayne (2001) show that there are different factors involved in post-event
information and how eyewitness accounts of an event can be affected by it. Information that is
central for the witness was less open to distortions from misleading post-event information than
information that’s was peripheral. So if a situation is such that the event was central for the
individual, ten post-event information might have less effect and testimony should be more
reliable.
describe anxiety in relation to EWT reliability
Anxiety – Valentine and Mesout (2009) showed how people with higher levels of anxiety recalled fewer correct descriptors of a “scary person” than those with lower levels of anxiety. The stress of the situation may have reduce the reliability of their testimony.
describe leading questions in relation to EWT reliability
Leading questions - This is when a question is worded in a way which pp’s believe there to be
a correct answer e.g. ‘Did you see the yellow car’ suggests that they should have. Evidence to
support the role of leading questions comes from Loftus who found that pp’s shown a video of a
car crash and asked how fast the car was going when it smashed into another gave much
higher recall than if the verb was contacted.
describe weapon focus in relation to EWT reliability
Weapon focus - If a weapon or perceived weapon is used this is said to attract attention and
mean the focus is on the weapon only rather than the peripheral events. Loftus et al (1987)
supports this as recall for a man was better if he was shown in an image holding a cheque book
than when he was shown holding a gun.
describe the application to cognitive interview for EWT reliability
Application - Cognitive interview – changes to modern policing methods mean they now
focus on allowing pp’s to freely describe what they saw and do not ask as many questions. They
may ask pp’s to give accounts from different perspectives in order to get an accurate
description. This suggests witness testimony is reliable.
The cognitive interview is a method of interviewing eyewitnesses, which is thought to be
particularly effective in increasing the rates of accurate recall, by considering the theories
discussed previously. The stages are as follows: *
- Report everything = Even seemingly insignificant details may be important or trigger the recall
of larger events, by acting as a ‘cue’ (think back to retrieval failure!). *
- Reinstate the context = Recalling the weather, location and mood of the day prevents context
dependent forgetting by reminding the eyewitness of their external cues at the time. *
- Change the perspective = Recalling events from the perspective of the victim or persecutor
prevents the eyewitness’ account from being affected by their own schemas or pre-conceived
perceptions of how the crime, in their opinion, happened. *
- Reverse the order = Recalling events in a different order, other than chronological, reduces
the ability of the eyewitness to lie (as it is simply difficult) and also reduces the impact of
schemas on their perception of events.
The enhanced cognitive interview was developed by Fisher et al (1987) and focuses on the
social dynamics of the interactions between the eyewitness and the interviewer e.g. knowing
when to make eye contact and when to diminish it (increases the likelihood that the eyewitness
will be calm and comfortable) as well as increasing rapport with the eyewitness (increases the
likelihood that they will answer truthfully about personal or sensitive topics).
Milne and Bull (2002) suggested, where context reinstatement and report everything produced
the greatest accuracy of recall of correct information as compared to any other combinations of
steps. This means that even if police forces do not have enough time to train the entire force for
all of the 4 steps involved in the CI, even gradual changes from the standard police interview
can increase the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness testimony.
describe real life eyewitness accounts suggest EWT is accurate
Real life eyewitness accounts suggest EWT is accurate
Yuille and Cutshall found pp’s were still able to give accurate accounts of a crime 4-5 months
after witnessing the original event. This goes against lab-based research.
Thompson (1997) studied statements given by the survivors of the sunken riverboat,
Marchioness and found that, despite extreme emotional trauma, recall was very accurate many
months.
Flashbulb memories suggest that memory on an event can be particularly clear owing to the
emotional impact the vent witnesses has on the individual. Hirst et al. (2009) has shown that
memory recall for an emotional event remains accurate for a prolonged period of time, although it is subject to eventually fading (trace decay theory – Hebb), as are most memory’s. However, evidence is mixed. Lab studies are often used as it could be deemed unethical to look at real life events. A problem of this is that pp’s are often students and videos cannot capture the emotions that may be experience when witnessing a real crime. Also, pp’s are aware they are in a study and may show demand characteristics as they are aware something may happen which is not what happens in real life crimes. This suggests research into EWT is often flawed.
describe individual differences for gender in relation to EWT reliability
Individual differences – gender
Arch (2010) found that females are more reliable eyewitnesses than males. Females were more
accurate when describing people, in particular when describing victims. Males were more
accurate in describing the event and were more confident about describing places. Males were
more confident but they were less right; females were highly accurate when describing places.
There were no differences in the quantity of details recalled. This has implications for the
unreliability of eyewitness testimony as perhaps male eyewitnesses are less reliable.
describe child witnesses in relation to EWT reliability
Child witnesses are not reliable - children as eye-witnesses are often regarded as unreliable
because they are prone to fantasy and their memories may be especially affected by the
suggestions made by others. Therefore, researchers have been interested in finding out if
children are accurate eye-witnesses e.g. when identifying a perpetrator from a lineup.
