Post 2 Response 2
100-word response/ 1 reference/intext citation
Due 1/31/2025
Charlize
During a crime there are many psychological factors that affect a witness’s perception, memory, and availability to provide evidence based strategies to reduce these challenges. High levels of stress during a crime can impair a witness’s ability to encode memories accurately. There is a phenomenon called the “weapon focus”, which explains that the witness focuses on the weapon to the detriment of other details. Loftus et al. (1987) state, “Subjects who saw a weapon were less likely to identify the person holding the weapon than were subjects who saw a neutral object in the person’s hand” (p. 56). Humans have a limited attention span, this causes witnesses to focus on salient or emotionally significant aspects of a crime, ignoring greater details. Overtime, memory naturally fades, and without proper retrieval cues, witnesses may lose critical details or introduce inaccuracies. There is also the misinformation effect when witnesses are highly susceptible to suggestion, and may incorporate misleading post-event information. Certain witnesses may have distorted or selective memories, due to prior biases and beliefs. Lasty, investigators and jurors can be misled by a witness’s overconfidence on inaccurate information. There are several methodologies and practices investigators can implement to enhance the reliability of witness observation. Investigators can use cognitive interview techniques developed by Fisher and Geiselman. Studies show that cognitive interviews have 25–35% more accurate information than traditional police interviews (Fisher et al., 1987). These techniques include reinstating the context of the crime scene and encouraging the witness to report every detail, no matter how trivial. This helps enhance a narrative and timeline, while reducing suggestibility. Conducting interviews in a short time period will help the witness remember more and give a more accurate timeline. Investigators should try to use open ended questions to let the witness see what they can recall without suggested information. Wells et al. (1998) found that sequential lineups significantly reduce false identifications. Lineups where suspects are presented one at a time, reduce the likelihood of false identifications by encouraging absolute judgments, instead of comparison. Isolating the witness from the media helps preserve memory integrity. As shown, there are many different methodologies, practices, and evidence-based strategies for mitigating the reliability, and accuracy of witness observations.
