NCJ Number
194889
Journal
International Journal of Police Science and Management Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2002 Pages: 41-52
Date Published
2002
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on a simulation method to assess the reliability of eyewitness testimony in a real criminal case.
Abstract
One of the ways to judge whether a witness’s testimony or eyewitness identification in a real case is trustworthy or not is to simulate as closely as possible the situation in which the witness experienced the crime. In this case, an eyewitness witnessed a man at night that was in an escaping vehicle and identified him as a criminal from a photospread about 2 weeks later. The description of the eyewitness was detailed, but there might be estimator variables that lower his performance of perception and memory. The factors that influence eyewitness memory can be categorized into three stages of memory function: acquiring, retaining, and retrieving. At the acquiring stage, factors influencing testimony can be further categorized into event factors and witness factors. Event factors include illumination conditions, exposure time, perceived object was moving, or the distance between witness and the car. A field experimental method was adopted to clarify whether such testimony was trustworthy. The experiment was conducted at the same time and weather conditions were the same as the original event. Subjects were assigned to one of the two experimental conditions and the time at which these groups began their observation varied. The brightness of the target car, the time the target car was seen, traffic density, and recall and recognition results were analyzed. Results of the field experiment showed that no one could identify the target person. Their descriptions of the event were much poorer than the testimony given by the eyewitness. At least 10 factors can be supposed to have influenced memory formation, retention and retrieval in such a way as to impair memory performance. This showed clearly that the testimony of the eyewitness was not reliable. 1 figure, 4 tables, 20 references