What are some negative things about Eye Witness Testimony?

Answer 1

Eyewitness testimony can be extremely unreliable due to a number of factors concerning both memory and the circumstances surrounding when the "memory" is created, how it is retrieved, etc. The average person and even the average cop are woefully unaware of how memory "works" -- it is NOT like making a videotape of an event and replaying it to check the facts each time someone is questioned about the event. So many factors affect how a memory is encoded (gotten into memory), stored and recalled that simple things such as the verbs used to ask the questions can affect the answers. Jurors put an incredible amount of weight on eyewitness testimony, even if its accuracy and reliability are adequately challenged by an opposing attorney. We want to believe in what we "see;" unfortunately decades of research have indicated just how fallible memory can be.

Quick example of what I'm talking about. Elizabeth Loftus has done extensive research on eyewitness testimony. In one study she showed a video of a two cars running into each other. She then asked sujbects, "how fast were the cars going when they ____ each other?" She varied the verb inserted into the blank using bumped, collided, hit, slammed, etc. The estimates of speed increased with the intensity of the verb. Even more importantly, two weeks later she asked the same subjects if they recalled seeing any broken glass at the scene. Those who had heard the higher intensity verb and answered with higher speeds, were more likely to "remember" seeing broken glass (there was none) than others. This is an example how "memory" works to remain consistent with itself.

Answer 2

Eye witness testimony can very easily be tainted by improper police interaction.

If an alleged victim gives a description of an alleged perpetrator and a police officer brings someone matching that description into the victim's view for 'an identification', nine times out of ten, the alleged victim is going to say "Yes, he's the one" even if the person being displayed before the alleged victim is someone known to be well away from the scene of the crime at the time.

Nevertheless, the one-man-line-up becomes the basis for thousands of arrests and prosecutions each year, when the much more sensible thing to do is to do a low proportion lineup or throw out the alleged eyewitness testimony.

Answer 3

You must realize that your instructor wants answers from your text, not random Internet posters.

Heres one:

Conflicting eye witness statements can be used to discredit one another.

Answer 4

Biggest Problem: People are idiots