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The Credibility Of Eyewitnesses In Criminal Investigations

441 Words2 Pages

Eye witness identification involves selecting an accused perpetrator from a police line up, sketch or being at the crime scene during the murder time. After selecting a suspect, witnesses are asked to make a formal statement confirming the ID of the suspect (s) or other surrounding details which the eyewitness can testify in court. Eyewitnesses are always required to testify in court but eyewitnesses with psychological disorders, substance dependancy are at a higher chance of identifying the wrong suspect therefore wrongfully assisting convict the perpetrator in the wrong (Hal Arkowitz, Scott O. Lilienfeld, January 1, 2010). Anxiety or stress is always associated with crimes involving traumatic events that have previously taken place. …show more content…

E.g Individuals are more likely to be accursed if they are a different race to the eyewitness testifier. This indicates that individuals are able to reshape, construct scenarios based on stereotypical believes unlike psyical or photographic evidence which is a relabel source to correctly use as a credible source of evidence. This is displayed in Allport and Postman experiment in 1947. Participants were asked to recall the opposite picture, participants were morvlikey to report a black male but this is incorrect as the image shows a white individual. This clearly sows that the memory is an active process and is expected to alter an opinion based on understanding society (Simple Psychology, 2014) .


Eyewitness testimony is unethical as the evidence that is supplied can be provided by someone with stress or anxiety issues this can assist by distraught the image of the suspect. Wrongfully sending an innocent individual to prison. Bloods worth’s case displays it is unethical as there was no psychical evidence nor appearance matched that supported Bloodsworth was responsible for the murder and rape of the victim. Three eyewitnesses were able to identify the perpetrator out of the five and this was based from evidence that he was spotted with the young girl hours earlier before the crime was

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