Eyewitness testimony is highly compelling in a criminal trial, and can have an indelible impact on jurors. However, two decades of research on the subject have shown us that eyewitnesses are sometimes wrong, even when they are highly confident that they are making correct identifications. This book brings together an impressive group of researchers and practicing attorneys to provide current overviews and critiques of key topics in eyewitness testimony.
Forensic mental health assessment (FMHA) has grown into a specialization informed by research and professional guidelines. This series presents up-to-date information on the most important and frequently conducted forms of FMHA. The 19 topical volumes address best approaches to practice for particular types of evaluation in the criminal, civil, and juvenile/family areas. Each volume contains a thorough discussion of the relevant legal and psychological concepts, followed by a step-by-step description of the assessment process from preparing for the evaluation to writing the report and testifying in court. Volumes include the following helpful features: · Boxes that zero in on important information for use in evaluations · Tips for best practice and cautions against common pitfalls · Highlighting of relevant case law and statutes · Separate list of assessment tools for easy reference · Helpful glossary of key terms for the particular topic In making recommendations for best practice, authors consider empirical support, legal relevance, and consistency with ethical and professional standards. These volumes offer invaluable guidance for anyone involved in conducting or using forensic evaluations.
Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification makes the case that better data collection and research on eyewitness identification, new law enforcement training protocols, standardized procedures for administering line-ups, and improvements in the handling of eyewitness identification in court can increase the chances that accurate identifications are made. This report explains the science that has emerged during the past 30 years on eyewitness identifications and identifies best practices in eyewitness procedures for the law enforcement community and in the presentation of eyewitness evidence in the courtroom. In order to continue the advancement of eyewitness identification research, the report recommends a focused research agenda.
This volume provides a tutorial review and evaluation of scientific research on the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness identification. The book starts with the perspective that there are a variety of conceptual and empirical problems with eyewitness identification as a form of forensic evidence, just as there are a variety of problems with other forms of forensic evidence. There is then an examination of the important results in the study of eyewitness memory and the implications of this research for psychological theory and for social and legal policy. The volume takes the perspective that research on eyewitness identification can be seen as the paradigmatic example of how psychological science can be successfully applied to real-world problems.
By shedding light on the many factors that can intervene and create inaccurate testimony, Elizabeth Loftus illustrates how memory can be radically altered by the way an eyewitness is questioned, and how new memories can be implanted and old ones changed in subtle ways.
Eyewitness testimony is highly compelling in a criminal trial, and can have an indelible impact on jurors. However, two decades of research on the subject have shown us that eyewitnesses are sometimes wrong, even when they are highly confident that they are making correct identifications. This book brings together an impressive group of researchers and practicing attorneys to provide current overviews and critiques of key topics in eyewitness testimony.
Roger L. Terry grew up in Danbury, Connecticut; and after a year at Danbury High School, he transferred to Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and graduated in 1954. He started his training in psychology at Yale University, receiving his bachelor of arts degree in 1962. He earned his master of science degree in psychology in 1964 at Auburn University where he spent a year as a graduate assistant teaching introductory psychology. Moving on to the social psychology program at the University of Missouri at Columbia, he was a part-time research assistant and full-time research associate in the Center for Research in Social Behavior, primarily responsible for the collection of survey data from samples of public school teachers in the United States, England, New Zealand, and Australia. His teaching experience included more courses in introductory psychology and conducting the correspondence course in social psychology. He was awarded his doctor of philosophy degree in social psychology in 1968. Upon receiving his doctorate, he joined the psychology faculty of Hanover College in Indiana where he spent the entirety of his postdoctoral career. During that time, he advanced through the academic ranks from assistant professor to associate professor to professor of psychology, including multiple stints as chair of the department of psychology. His primary teaching responsibilities included social psychology; cognitive psychology; social research methods; learning, motivation, and personality theory; and, of course, introductory psychology. He also taught courses in life span development, human sexuality, social conflict, research controversies, and educational psychology and learning disabilities. Periodically, he taught off-campus classes in social psychology, child psychology, educational psychology, and abnormal psychology for Purdue University and Indiana University. All of these courses dealt with the gamut of behavior generally while social psychology covered such specific issues of eyewitness identification as person perception (e.g., impression formation), social judgment (e.g., attribution of responsibility), attitude change (e.g., testimonial persuasiveness), and group dynamics (e.g., jury deliberation); and cognitive psychology dealt extensively with the nature of human memory and forgetting (e.g., face recognition). With respect to postdoctoral research experiences, part of his teaching responsibilities included baccalaureate thesis supervision. Over the years, he consulted and supervised more than one hundred undergraduate research theses on all sorts of behavioral science topics, mostly inspired by the students themselves. He is the sole author or coauthor of more than fifty professional conference presentations at the state, regional, national, and international levels; about seventy-five publications in scientific journals; and countless classroom projects, pretests, and pilot studies. The overwhelming majority of published articles report original research investigations; a few articles are nonempirical without statistical analyses of original data (e.g., literature and book reviews, theoretical statements, etc.). The articles appeared in more than forty different periodicals in the United States and abroad. While most of this research dealt with topics of social and cognitive psychology generally, such specific issues of eyewitness testimony as social perception, impression formation, effects of disguises on face recognition, and lineup bias were covered. These interests can be seen in a sample of a halfdozen references: "Contextual similarities in subjective probabilities of rape and other events" (Journal of Social Psychology 113 [1981]: 293 294), "Social and personality effects of vision correctives" (Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 5 [1990]: 683 695), "How wearing eyeglasses affects facial recognition" (Current Psychology: Developmental, Learning, Personality, Social 12 [1993]: 151 162), "
