Essay - Although Eyewitness Testimony is Often Unreliable, Its Quality is not...

Although eyewitness testimony is often unreliable, its quality ***** not always poor. Previous research shows that the type of testimony indicating the most accurate identification involves the unstructured recall of actions. Eyewitness testimony is still a hum*****n phenomenon, and as a result, it is subject to many external and internal fac*****rs. For instance, whether the "witnessing" took place in light or dark conditions, ***** the lineup is live or on videotape, the capacity ***** short-term memory, unconscious transference, and a host of o*****r psychologic*****l and external factors may all affect the degree ***** accuracy of the eyewitness testimony. This report will take a close look at these factors affecting eyewitness *****, in addition to illustr*****ing how innocent bystanders can sometimes be identified by eyewitness testimony as the suspected criminal(s). How eyewitness testimony affects prosecutors and defense attorneys will also be reviewed in an effort to show the importance of insuring accurate eyewitness ***** on *****half of all concerned parties. Various ***** studies and tests will be used to support these findings as well ***** police reports and statistics. A brief conclusion will discuss future areas ***** research which need ***** be examined to discover more about the ***** affecting the ***** of eyewitness testimony.

Unconscious transference is a phenomenon ***** can affect ***** where eyewitness testimony is concerned, but recent ***** ***** that the effect is minimal if at all. Read (1990) reports that innocent ***** are ***** m*****identified due to ***** effect ***** unconscious *****. Read (*****, 3) conducted "five field studies, ***** with 330 retail store clerks and 340 undergraduates, in which retention interval, byst*****er-perpetrator *****s, lineup types, lineup similarity, and bystander and targets were varied, with one exception, unconscious transference was ***** demonstrated." Yet, when the difference in accuracy can mean the ***** between being free and a jail sentence, ***** should realize sm***** percentages may make a difference added up over all the cases in the country.

However, one factor ***** does affect greatly eyewitness ***** is the target person distinctiveness and attractiveness as moderator. Brigham (1990, 101) analyzed identifications across 33 ***** targets (TGs) to ascertain whe*****r the magnitude of the confidence-accuracy (CA) relationship associated with each TG face would be related ***** two TG characteristics: distinctiveness (DIS) ***** attractiveness (ATT) of appearance. According to *****, 1990, *****), "196 college students participated in the identification phase of the study, and 124 college ***** were used to obtain ratings ***** *****s' ATT and DIS." DIS of a TG face ***** significantly related to the ***** ***** the CA correlation ***** with that face; less distinctive-looking ********** yielded lower ***** correlations than did TGs average or above-average in DIS. TG ATT was also related to the magnitude of the CA relationship.

One ***** in technology and ***** cost of gathering ***** witnesses at the same time, is the factor of live versus videotaped lineups of ***** criminals for *****. Cutler (1989) tested whether eyewitness identification accuracy differs as a function of whether the eyewitness attempts an identification