ipl-logo

Eyewitness Testimony Essay

2508 Words11 Pages

Eyewitness testimony in children (Memory) Eyewitness testimony is something which describes a person’s observations about any event or incident. Remembering something and recalling it later is possible because of memory. So, the ability of an organism to record information about things or events with the facility of recalling them later at will or when asked is memory. Eyewitness testimony in children is a part of their reconstructive memory according to “Elizabeth Loftus”. Reconstructive memory is the act of remembering and it is also influenced by various other factors and cognitive processes as well. While remembering the things or taking them into account for further usage children think that whatever they are seeing or observing will …show more content…

Some children have a greater level of intelligence, some of them have better verbal ability, some of them have suggestibility ability, and some of them have better memory recall while some of them have intelligence disability. These all factors result in different answers from different children regarding memory and eyewitness testimony. Script based Inferences Script based inferences also play an important role while an interviewer is asking questions from children. Scripts help children to organize their thoughts and then answer with help of it. It is usually helpful children but on the same time these scripts can also have effects that are damaging in the retrieval of accurate memories. Scripts can lead people to report details of events that did not happen, even if those details fit with the script of the event. Socially encountered misinformation Another factor that affects eyewitness testimony in children is socially encountered misinformation. That is children are provided with wrong or misleading information which is society led and even if it is wrong then also parents insist them to learn it. So according to ‘Akehurst, Burden, and Buckle’s’ (2009) study of misinformation provided evidence that 9-11 year old children can be susceptible to suggestion and misinformation under the right

Show More
Related

  • Case Study Of John's Wrongful Conviction: Flawed Pathology Evidence

    1139 Words  | 5 Pages

    Eyewitness accounts play a huge role in general in trials and verdicts, but may be unreliable many times, with certain views placed on evidence provided by children. Unreliability may arise from not being able to recount the identity of the accused, the actions and speech occurring during that time, the relationship of individuals towards the person in question, and many

    Read More

  • Ohio V. Clark Case Study

    776 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The child, at three and a half years old, is incompetent to appear in court as a witness… If the child is incompetent to testify in court, why isn’t the child incompetent to testify out—make the same statement out of court?” (Ohio 2). This shows that the child, while he may be telling the truth, is still not seen as someone that is allowed to testify in court as a real witness to the crime. The misuse of the child’s words within the case of Darius Clark is again shown that he was not able to have real testimony presented in front of the court to be seen as real or not.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Elizabeth Loftus Memory In Canadian Courts Of Law

    851 Words  | 4 Pages

    Followed by the lack of corroboration, which is an important aspect in courtrooms, “corroboration will add credibility to the memory and lack of it may raise doubts about the allegations.” Loftus considers that relying on memory is not a valid way of justice; the legal system needs to improve when eyewitness testimonials are used in the courts. Loftus confides as a psychologist that psychological science has taught them about human memory and that the research has revealed the limits of human memory. Adding on, these research findings need to be incorporated in procedures to improve the court system. She hopes readers will acknowledge the fact that the use of memories in a trial can be problematic since they are “dangerous” and can lead to false

    Read More

  • How Does Loftus Study False Memories

    423 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is unlikely that social consequences of false memories can be avoided. Elizabeth Loftus was intrigued to study false memories, and is perhaps personally responsible for subsequent developments throughout the history of false memories. Some of this history addresses various theories aimed at isolating how or why false memories occur. These include Source Monitoring Framework, Activation Monitoring Theory, Fuzzy Trace Theory, and strategies for persuasion which can lead to the development of false memory. Such persuasion leads to the present discussion concerning how persuasion in the judicial system has created false confessions and wrongful eyewitness testimonies, due to the Misinformation Effect.

    Read More

  • The Lockerbie Bombing

    320 Words  | 2 Pages

    The description of the Lockerbie bombing may provide image on how lengthy and complicated an investigation and a trial process could be. Eyewitness would have to go through repeated interviews. The purpose of this procedure is to assess the consistency and accuracy of the testimony. Unfortunately, it is often not realized that repeated interview may also have a negative effect on the quality of the testimony given. A study by Sharps, Herrera, Dunn, and Alcala investigated the effect of repeated questioning in the format based of police procedure (2012).

    Read More

  • Ronald Cotton Eyewitness Testimony

    878 Words  | 4 Pages

    Eyewitness testimony is sent to sensory memory whereby it involves retaining information and details. In order to recall specific features of a person, the victim must be very observant and concentrate during the event and after when trying to remember these details. This can be transferred to short-term memory, which has the capacity of remembering 7±2 memories, and if subjects rehearse what they have seen then the memory can be stored in long-term memory. Memories can then be retrieved when needed for testimony.

    Read More

  • 1.07 Critical Thinking Questions

    304 Words  | 2 Pages

    People might remember seeing things they actually did not actually see, because it is what they wanted to see or believe. The person could not have been fully aware of the situation at hand; this can be due to extreme stress or shock. Thus, the person will comprehend the situation with addition or subtraction to details. This demonstration did change the way I feel when listening to testimonies and eye witness interview. An eyewitness report can butcher detail and very essential facts.

    Read More

  • Eyewitness Identification In The Criminal Justice System

    80 Words  | 1 Pages

    The criminal justice system depends majorly on eyewitness identification for investigating and prosecuting crimes. Psychologists have been the only ones who have warned the justice system of problems with eyewitness identification evidence. Recent DNA exoneration cases have corrupted the warnings of eyewitness identification researchers by showing that mistaken eyewitness identification was the largest factor contributing to the conviction of many innocent people eyewitness testimonies are not reliable therefor you would assume they would be taken out of court, but instead

    Read More

  • Nonabused Children Essay

    761 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is a lack of generalizability of many of the studies across all spectrums of children, particularly in regards to socioeconomic backgrounds that also play a factor in developmental delays outside of abuse (Krackow & Lynn, 2003). Child witness research has lacked studies on the strengths and weaknesses of abused children while instead focusing on nonabused children who may create false allegations (Eisen, et al., 1998). While this research may provide insight into how nonabused children may present false memories upon interrogation, it does not further information on how abused children respond under interrogation and how best to assist them in the legal process to protect them. Current research is often conflicting on whether or not abused children are more or less likely to confuse nonabusive events with abusive ones and abused children to have a higher rate of accepting abuse-related suggestions that lead to false memories (Pezdek & Roe, 1994,

    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

  • Eyewitness Misidentification

    1297 Words  | 6 Pages

    Are You Sure? Why have more than two-thousand people exonerated for crimes they didn’t commit? Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the U.S. Memory can be influenced by anxiety, stress, reconstructive memory and other factors possibly affecting the testimony of the eyewitness and in turn, misleading the jury. I think that when subjects witness a crime they will struggle to remember important details of the event, and their recollection could be easily altered. This is because the reconstructive memory can be influenced by factors such as stress, anxiety, and verbal cues.

    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

  • Short Story 'The Rocket' By Ray Bradbury

    771 Words  | 4 Pages

    He takes his children on a trip, one that they say they will "remember... for always. " Even though the trip was not real, the children got amazing memories they would cherish their whole lives. Though the ending of the story is optimistic and Bodoni’s little trick is not revealed and has only positive effects, the problem of lying to children is extremely topical. There are many disputes among psychologists about

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Scott Fraser

    1835 Words  | 8 Pages

    This creates a major issue within a judicial system. It takes a few eye witness testimonies towards the prosecuted individual to incarcerate them, even if they did not commit the crime. It is because of this reason that Scott Fraser chooses to speak out against eye witness testimonies. In his speech, he argues that memory is fallible and should not be as heavily relied upon within the judicial system.

    Read More

  • Reincarnation Thesis Statement

    1080 Words  | 5 Pages

    His book Return to life is the New York’s’ best seller. He continued the work of Dr. Stevenson when he retired. In this book, Jim’s experiences with several extraordinary children with past memories are mentioned. His book entails the family stories and his investigations. He tried to determine what the child has said, parent’s reaction, and verification of child memory.

    Read More

More about Eyewitness Testimony Essay

Open Document