Crime & Memory
The goal of studying eyewitness evidence is not to assume every witness is unreliable, but to evaluate this type of evidence with science.
What is evaluating eyewitness evidence scientifically?
Before conducting a lineup, investigators should document this information from the witness
Witness's initial description
A witness can be sincere, confident, and still be wrong. (True or False)
True
In the Tony Ford case, two surviving sisters identified Ford as the shooter, making their testimony central to?
Prosecution's case
Lighting, distance, stress, attention, and the presence of a weapon are examples of these factors that affect the original memory.
What are estimator variables?
A proper lineup should communicate that the perpetrator may not be present and that the witness does not have to do this.
What are the identification instructions?
A witness initially makes an identification. The administrator says, "Good, you picked the suspect."
What is post-identification feedback?
Ford's lawyers argued that the identification was vulnerable to error because of lineup composition and the similarity between Ford and __?
Victor Belton
The phenomenon occurs when a weapon or threat draws attention away from the perpetrator's face.
Weapon Focus
In this type of administration, the person conducting the lineup does not know which person is the suspect, reducing the possibility of intentional or unintentional influence.
Blind Administration
Confidence is most scientifically useful when it is recorded immediately after the first identification, before this can occur.
What is feedback or repeated exposure/ questioning?
The Tony Ford case can be used to examine viewing conditions, lineup fairness, confidence, cross-race identification, and what type of contamination.
Post-identification contamination
Witnesses generally identify faces from their own racial group more accurately than faces from a less familiar racial group.
Cross-race identification effect
A fair lineup should be constructed so that the suspect does not __ compared to the fillers.
Stand out
A witness sees the same suspect in multiple lineups. Later, the suspect feels familiar, but the witness may not remember why.
Familiarity caused by repeated exposure
A mistaken identification can lead to tunnel vision, discounted alibis, interrogation pressure, and forensic evidence being interpreted through this assumption.
What is guilt?
A witness talks to others, encounters media or police information, and repeatedly thinks about the event before identifying someone.
Post-event contamination
Procedures include obtaining the witness's description first, using appropriate fillers, blind/blinded administration, immediate confidence recording, and electronic recording.
California SB 923
Eyewitness evidence, the lineup is fair, administration is blind/blinded, instructions are proper, and confidence is recorded immediately. The opposite condition is
Contaminated eyewitness evidence
This California law demonstrates how research on memory, decision-making, and social influence can be translated into concrete safeguards for eyewitness identification.
What is SB 923?