Psychology Of Eyewitness Testimony

PSYCHOLOGY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY

The study of the eyewitness testimony can be traced back over a 100 years,

but it was only during the 1970’s that applied research really began to take

off. Eyewitness testimony is a legal term that refers to an account given by a

person, of an event that they have witnessed. Eyewitness accounts are one

of the strongest pieces of evidence in criminal trials all around the world and

are generally seen to be a reliable and accurate source of evidence by juries.

Researchers have found that “more innocent citizens are wrongly tried and

convicted on the basis of eyewitness evidence in Great Britain and North

America than by an other factor within the legal system” (Smith, Slinson, &

Prosser, 2004, p.146). Eyewitness testimony is an important area of research

within cognitive psychology and human memory. There are several

cognitive processes that take place when we try and make sense of the world

around us. This essay will look at how eyewitness testimony research began.

The research into memory and how it works, as well as the psychological

factors that can affect the eyewitness testimony. It will look at some of the

research and experiments carried out by various psychologists. In addition to

this it will also look at the impact that psychological research has had on the

legal system and police identity parades. Finally it will look at miscarriages

of justice that have taken place due to mistaken identity.

The first known case of a psychologist testifying in a court of law as an

expert witness was in 1896. Albert Von Schrenk-Notzing testified at the

trial of a man accused of murdering three women and used his research on

memory to explain how the publicity before the case could have altered the

recollection of witnesses during the court proceedings.

It 1901, German psychologist, William Stern carried out memory studies on

students. They were asked to...