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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
Eye witness testimony is often assumed to be some of the best evidence in a court case, the level of confidence of the witness also increase the trust placed in it by the jury. This 10 page paper looks at the problems associated with eye witness testimony form a psychological perspective, including the ways in which it can be tainted. The bibliography cites 13 sources.
Page Count:
10 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TS14_TEeyewit.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
to this type of evidence. Theoretically an eye witness may be the most desirable piece of evidence, the witness can be in court and explain exactly what they saw and
how, with the ability of the both the prosecution and the defence to questions them. Despite this it appears that the level of weight given to eye witness testimony may
be disproportionate to its reliability. In 1996 it was found that the primary cause for the conviction of innocent people was false eye witness testimony (Wells et al, 1998).
This does not mean that witnesses are giving purposefully false testimony, but that there are a number of factors which can all impact on the memory and perception of events
which can influence the way the events were perceived and the accuracy with which they are recalled. The result is increasing awareness of the potential for witnesses to be influenced
and give testimony that is not accurate. The need for witnesses and their evidence is generally accepted, but with the level of
evidence that the testimony may be flawed also gives rise to some legal problems in the way it is presented and also in the way that evidence is initially gathered
(Wells et al, 1990, 1998). There are thee main principles that can explain the way in which the eye witness maybe influenced or give false testimony, these are
the experimenter expectancy effect, the lack of perception by the witness that they are being influenced and last is that of confidence malleability where witness may be made to feel
confident in their memory than would otherwise be the case. If we look at each in turn the way that eyewitness testimony may be inaccurate and influenced which can impact
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