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PART 2
Investigating Crime
6 Eyewitness Evidence
HARRIET M. J. SMITH, HANNAH RYDER AND HEATH ER D. FLOWE
CHAPTER OUTLINE
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 THE MEMORY PROCESS
6.3 ESTIMATOR VS. SYSTEM VARIABLES
6.4 ENCODING FACTORS 6.4.1 Stress
6.4.2 Weapon Focus
6.4.3 Change Blindness
6.4.4 Stereotyping
6.4.5 Intoxication
6.4.6 Age
6.5 STORAGE FACTORS 6.5.1 Post-event Information
6.5.2 False Memories
6.5.3 Delay
6.5.4 Emotional and Traumatic Memories
6.6 RETRIEVAL FACTORS 6.6.1 Question Format
6.6.2 Suggestive Questioning
6.6.3 Retrieval Enhancement
6.6.4 Do Confident Witnesses Make Accurate Witnesses?
6.6.5 The Accuracy-Informativeness Trade-off
6.7 CONCLUSIONS
6.8 SUMMARY
LEARNING OUTCOMES
BY THE END OF THIS CHAPTER, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Understand why a psychological analysis of eyewitness testimony is important in criminal investigation and the legal process
Appreciate the principal research methods used to explore eyewitness testimony
Understand the implications of existing research findings for the conduct of investigators and the courts.
6.1 INTRODUCTION
As we are finalising this chapter, the world is reacting in horror and sadness to the terror attack in Paris. A total of 130 people have lost their lives, and 350 people have been injured, many of whom are still in hospital, listed in serious condition. At this early stage, we are learning about how the series of attacks unfolded largely through the accounts given by witnesses. The scenes they are describing are reminiscent of a battlefield: “It was carnage… There seemed to be at least two gunmen. They shot from the balcony. I saw my final hour unfurl before me. I thought this was the end. I thought I’m finished, I’m finished. I was terrified.” (Marc Coupris, as quoted in Chrisafis, 14 November 2015).
Much of the information about the attackers is consistent across media reports. However, there are also inconsistencies. For example, among the victims who were inside the Bataclan concert hall, some have reported that the attackers said nothing whilst they fired their weapons, whereas others have reported that they heard the attackers shout, “It’s for Syria”. Some victims have reported that one of the attackers was a female, whilst others have reported seeing only male attackers. Still other victims have reported they were transfixed by the pain and suffering of those around them, and could not describe what the attackers said or what they looked like.
This chapter provides an overview of major current research topics concerning witness memory. We will consider how attention and the different stages of memory relate to what witnesses remember about events. For example, the accounts of the Paris attacks may vary because witnesses attended to different aspects of the scene, or because differential exposure to stress and weapons affected memory storage across witnesses. We will also consider factors that affect memory retrieval, such as the delay between the event and witnesses giving information to the police, and whether the accuracy and completeness of the testimony provided depends on the type of questions that are asked. In addition, we address how memories might be affected by exposure to post-event information, such as media reports, some aspects of which might be inaccurate.
Witness testimony plays a vital role in criminal investigation and in the courtroom, providing a first-hand account of a criminal event to allow a judge and jury to decide the guilt of a defendant (Kebbell & Milne, 1998). Psychologists have long been interested in factors that contribute to the accuracy of witness memory. For example, Hugo Münsterberg in 1908 published his book On the Witness Stand (Münsterberg, 1908), which argued that experimental psychology could be used to probe the accuracy of testimony given by witnesses. The inaccuracy of witness identification and testimony is often cited as a leading cause of wrongful convictions (Wells & Olson, 2003). Considerable research has been devoted to describing the factors associated with the accuracy of testimony, and testing witness-interviewing procedures that might reduce memory errors or omissions. We will consider all of these issues in this chapter.
6.2 THE MEMORY PROCESS
When explaining memory, researchers often refer to three stages: encoding, storage and retrieval. At each stage, factors can operate to undermine the quality and accuracy of memory. As we will show, failure to encode events clearly, store them effectively, or retrieve them in favourable conditions, can mean that witnesses inaccurately remember what happened during crimes. This has important implications for the criminal justice system when trying to secure convictions.
The first stage of memory is encoding, and involves the creation of a memory by an observer. The quality of encoding can be compromised by the extent to which the observer is paying attention. Imagine that you are working in the library and witness another student being attacked. If you were distracted, working particularly hard on your essay, and perhaps listening to music through earphones, you may not have been in a position to clearly perceive what was happening, and therefore to encode a clear memory.
The second stage of memory is storage, or retention. After the memory has been encoded the observer will store the memory for later retrieval. Despite encoding it clearly, the accuracy of one witness’ stored memory might be influenced by hearing other people describe the attack incorrectly. A large body of research into false memory creation shows just how vulnerable stored memories are to external influences, and how resulting representations often include a complex mixture of correct and incorrect information. This is explained in more detail later in the chapter.
Retrieval describes the process by which memory is accessed, and in the legal contexts, involves the witness explaining what happened during the event to the police. Witnesses may encounter difficulty accessing their memories. Imagine you are being interviewed in a police station. You are in an unfamiliar place, feeling under pressure to recount the event as accurately as possible. The police ask you specific questions about details you are struggling to remember. Recent research suggests that something as simple as closing your eyes during an interview might significantly improve the quality and accuracy of the recall, making it easier for witnesses to visualise a past event (Vredeveldt, Hitch, & Baddeley, 2011). Other ways in which the accuracy of retrieval can be improved are covered in Chapter 7.
The three stages of memory described above are central to understanding how people remember crimes, but it is important to consider how actual crimes differ from the events that psychologists use in the laboratory to make inferences about real eyewitnesses. Owing to ethical and practical considerations, participants often view videos of crimes as part of eyewitness experiments. Later, their memory is tested for the event in the video. However, the unique nature of witnessing a real crime might influence how well events are remembered. In one of the few studies testing memory for a real crime event, Yuille and Cutshall (1986) investigated the memory accuracy of witnesses to a fatal shooting incident in Canada. They assessed the accuracy of responses recorded during initial police interviews, and compared these to those given in interviews taking place four to five months after the event. Not only were the witnesses’ recollections overall very accurate, but accuracy did not decline over the retention period. These results might seem surprising in lig
ht of the studies described in subsequent sections, so it is important to bear in mind the possibility that real-life crimes could be better remembered than laboratory studies would have us believe (Koriat & Goldsmith, 1994). It is certainly important to exercise caution before automatically assuming that findings generalise from the lab to the real world (Wagstaff et al., 2003).
6.3 ESTIMATOR VS. SYSTEM VARIABLES
Eyewitness testimony can be a crucial and an influential source of evidence in criminal cases (Yarmey, 2001). Therefore, it is highly important that legal professionals understand how accurate witnesses are likely to be when recalling details about a crime, and what factors might make them more or less accurate.
More than 35 years ago, psychologist Gary Wells made an important distinction between two types of factor affecting eyewitness accuracy: estimator variables and system variables (Wells, 1978). Estimator variables cannot be controlled by the legal justice system, so their impact has to be estimated by legal professionals. Estimator variables are primarily related to the encoding and storage stages of memory, particularly the characteristics of the crime event. Examples include factors such as how stressed the witness was, how far away the witness was at the time of the event, what the lighting was like, and whether the witness’ memory was later contaminated by conflicting accounts. Once the witness comes into contact with the criminal justice system (i.e. is interviewed by the police, writes a witness statement or is questioned in court), estimator variables will have already exerted their influence on the quality and accuracy of the memory.
System variables are most closely related to the retrieval stage of memory, and can be controlled by the criminal justice system. An example is the kind of questions (open or closed) posed to witnesses. Legal professionals have to manage their interactions with witnesses very carefully to minimise further damage to their memories. Chapter 6 explains in more detail the importance of using appropriate methods of questioning in police interviews.
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