Judges and jurists have great faith in the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Psychologists, however, would have us believe eyewitnesses have little to offer the Criminal Justice System. Discuss.

INTRODUCTION

It has been found that when an witness testimony is provided as certify in a criminal romance case, it is more likely to event in a conviction (Visher, 1987), in fact, 77,000 people per class are charged with crimes solely based on witness evidence (Goldstein, Chance & antiophthalmic factor; Schneller, 1989). A study conducted by Loftus (1974) found an alarming 54% swing from a non- red-handed verdict, to that of guilty within the same case simply through the foot of an witness testimony. Such findings clearly demonstrate the potency of eyewitness testimony, and support the theory that jurors tend to over believe, or at least weigh heavily on such evidence (Kennedy & Haygood, 1992).

The legal system has long used eyewitness testimonies for developing leads, convicting criminals and exonerating the innocent, yet even honest and well-meaning witnesses earth-closet make errors. Thousands of innocent people are wrongfully convicted both year (Buckhout, 1974), and as a study by Brandon & Davies (1973) found, 74% of wrongful convictions resulted from evidence provided by eyewitnesses. Such findings need led m all psychologists and legal scholars to claim that eyewitness testimonies should be used with expectant caution, if at all. Houts (1956), for example, stated, Eyewitness identification is the close unreliable form of evidence and causes more miscarriages of justice than any other method of proof (p. 10-11).

A vast quantity of interrogation spanning several decades has focused on the accuracy of recall of eyewitness testimonies, with somewhat uninspiring results. Studies stick shown that many factors can negatively affect a witness recall, for example, the perpetrator world racially variant to the eyewitness (Brigham & Malpass, 1985); the fear/anxiety caused by the heading of a weapon (Loftus, Loftus & Messo, 1987); and the impact of having previously seen someones side of meat in a different context (Memon & Wright, 1999). However,

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This is a great taste with astounding vernacular. Your topic is also very good and should be addressed. It is sad to say that even in the year of 2006 that many people are still being convicted based on eye witnesses. Only recently has the tribunal system being able to utilize science and video to help convict and even free the acounted. Human reposition is a fallible thing. Great essay, keep it up!

This essay is an excellent piece of work only to be enriched with great and interesting facts with proper citations.

Your topic was very interesting I see you really tackled the some major lines in the court systems, but lets remember some witnesses are reliable and have contributed major assistance to the Criminal Justice System. Now the problem is figuring out which ones are reliable and which ones are not.

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