NCJ Number
101185
Journal
Victimology Volume: 10 Issue: 1-4 Dated: (1985) Pages: 411-424
Date Published
1985
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Because crimes are more likely to be reported to the police by victims than by bystanders and because there are no bystander-eyewitnesses to many crimes, it is important to understand factors affecting victims' ability as eyewitnesses.
Abstract
This paper briefly reviews the general processes whereby people encode, store, and recall events and faces. It also discusses some of the empirical research in terms of the factors that have been found to affect bystanders' memory. Research on victims' ability as eyewitnesses is then reviewed, and a general framework for comparing the eyewitness accuracy of victims and bystanders is presented. In the final section, there is a discussion of factors that affect victims' credibility as witnesses. (Author abstract)