how does weapon focus effect eyewitness testimony

These include: exposure time (the extent of time a person has to view the face), delay (amount of time between initial presentation of a stimulus and subsequent recognition), attention and arousal (the concentration of mental effort), and weapon focus (the presence of a weapon). A study on the impact of this phenomenon on child eyewitnesses was conducted by Kerri L. Pickel, Dana B. Narter, Molly M. Jameson and Thomas T. Lenhardt. Weapon focus. Background. Attention to central information 35 . This effect can have important consequences for the […] Laughery et al (1971) tested subjects on their recall based on the exposure time to a picture, showed one at a time of different positions of a human face. In other words, the person’s attentional focus subconsciously narrows to the weapon on being aroused, while almost ignoring the other features of the perpetrator. Understandably, the disproportionate role played by eyewitness misidentification in the DNA exoneration cases has helped to create a widespread impression that eyewitness memory is unreliable even under the best of circumstances (i.e., that it is inherently unreliable). Eyewitness Misidentification. The Court also issued jury guidelines so as to incorporate consideration for estimator variables like weapon focus and stress, systemic variables like line-up composition and external influence like the media, before reaching a decision. The Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology presents a survey of research and legal opinions from international experts on the rapidly expanding scientific literature addressing the accuracy and limitations of eyewitnesses as a source of evidence ... Found insideWritten by experts in eyewitness psychology and an experienced trial attorney, Eyewitness Testimony: Civil and Criminal offers step-by-step suggestions for addressing eyewitness testimony at each phase of a criminal or civil trial. • Weapon Focus. There is a great need to assess whether factors other than the presence of a weapon may have affected the perception and the memory of an eyewitness. where two misleading than other stateshave abandoned the weapon focus effect on eyewitness testimony is consistent with regard to warn the research. Found insideIn the tradition of Studs Terkel's oral histories, this book collects the voices and stories of the exonerees for whom life — inside and out — is forever framed by extraordinary injustice Eyewitness memory is affected by a series of elements, with the whole process initiated by estimator variables. A police officer carrying a gun is commonplace but a teenager carrying one would definitely attract a lot of attention. The final conviction or acquittal of a person relies upon the kind of evidence presented. Over time, this test was also proved insufficient by more advanced research. It is possible to remember whole events that did not happen. More often than not in our legal system, a perception of the truth is followed up on, without probing for more evidence in support of it. Centre for Criminal Justice Administration, “It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffers.”. This situation may occur when the central focus of an individual was on the weapon used to commit the crime, especially where such a tool was life threatening. The biggest problem with the weapon focus effect is that it seriously corrupts the memory of an eyewitness at the beginning of the incident itself, leaving a rather faint chance for any correction in the further stages of brain storage or retrieval. The data from various studies on this subject was collected and analyzed to determine if the presence of a weapon may actually be a factor affecting the memory or perception of an eyewitness to a real crime. 20 Elizabeth F. Loftus & Edie Greene, Warning: Even Memory for Faces May Be Contagious , 4 L. & Hum. Lab studies 30 . This fourth edition of the best-selling topically-organized introduction to infancy reflects the enormous changes that have occurred in our understanding of infants and their place in human development over the past decade. The remaining participants would be exposed to a good witnessing condition, where the robber was not disguised, the weapon was hidden, the identification took place 2 days after the robbery, and the lineup instructions were not suggestive. The most important foundation for eyewitness testimony is a person's memory - after all, whatever testimony is being reported is coming from what a person remembers. Section 228 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, highly trusted by the Indian Evidence Act. While the weapon is remembered clearly, the memories of the other details of . Outline one strength and one limitation of the experimental design outlined in question one. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. This volume gathers evidence from various research domains on eyewitness testimony. However, recently in  Dalip Kumar v. The State of Delhi, the court despite upholding the same principle, has opined slightly better because of the explanation offered on how intricately the sole eyewitness testimony needs to be assessed, but it has still been said that only the inconsistencies which dent the prosecution case shall be taken cognizance of. 1.2. Eyewitness testimony has always played an important role as evidence in the courts system. According to human eye fixation research, ample evidence from staged crimes proves that people inevitably fixate on unusual or informative objects for longer duration. Detecting Deception offers a state-of-the-art guide to the detection of deception with a focus on the ways in which new cognitive psychology-based approaches can improve practice and results in the field. From decades of research we know that memory is not a passive cognitive process, but it is an active . Effect of anxiety in eye witness testimony. Thus, eyewitness testimony must be. Featuring topics such as competence to stand trial, the insanity defense, expert forensic testimony, analysis of eye witness identification, criminal profiling, and many others, this best-selling book gives you a comprehensive overview of ... Only one is the real penny; the others have various mistakes like the wrong wording or tweaks to Abe Lincoln profile that make it different from the real thing. The weapon focus effect also plays a role whereby when a weapon is involved in a crime, the witness's concentration moves toward the weapon (McLeod, 2009). In another study, it was observed that the weapon remained the focus of attention of the subjects of the control group even though the weapon was in the perpetrator’s pocket. Since the weapon became the focus of visual attention, the eyewitnesses were unable to recall peripheral details or situational aspects which would have helped in the conviction of the perpetrator. Key Studies: "Weapon focus" and its effects on eye-witness memories (Loftus, 1987) Weapons focus could explain poor eye-witness memories because our attention is drawn to the weapon and we don't pay attention to other important details. Outline and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of eye witness testimony.Eye witness testimonies are the evidence given in court or in police investigation by someone who has witnessed a crime or an accident.Eye witness testimonies are affected by a number of factors, but the one that I am going to focus on is anxiety. The study involved creation of artificial situations to see how people would respond to the presence of a weapon under such circumstances. Although research may point in the direction of an eyewitness being influenced by a factor, this does not necessarily mean that an eyewitness is unreliable. Brain Training or Exercising Your Mind Like a Muscle. It is high time that eyewitness behaviour and statements are carefully studied by the police before being admitted as evidence because it is highly likely for systemic variables also to be the reason behind mistaken testimony and such variables can be controlled by the justice system with elaborate research and policy changes. People can make mistakes when trying to remember specific pieces of information. The researchers made use of eye-tracking technology to determine if this phenomenon can actually affect eyewitness testimony or not. Our site includes quite a bit of content, so if you're having an issue finding what you're looking for, go on ahead and use that search feature there! Witness attention capacity This means: witness focus on central cues (weapon) rather than peripheral cues (face) (KRAMMER) Wells GL, the trial judge retains discretion to admit orexclude expert testimony. Except for the defence counsel’s art of cross-examination, there is no provision for verifying the reliability of statements given by eyewitnesses, leading to a greater level of disobedience to procedure by the police and prosecution. Such conditions may be the lighting of the place, loud noise in the background, the weather, the distance between the perpetrator and the witness, weapons present, personal prejudices of the witness et cetera. Scroll down to understand if this phenomenon can affect the eyewitness testimony. The ability of an eyewitness to recall the events pertaining to the crime in the exact manner in which they took place could be adversely impacted by various psychological factors. Weapon focus is believed to be one of the estimator variables or the circumstantial factors that may induce emotional arousal. The phenomenon became known as the misinformation effect. There is almost always a great deal of anxiety or stress associated with crimes of violence. He explained that when our anxiety levels are at a medium level (known as optimal level), we are most likely to have more accurate recall of an event, compared to high or low anxiety levels. The testimony of an eyewitness to a crime is of great importance . Eyewitness Testimony and Human Memory. Thus, while attention for the weapon increases, attention for other stimuli decreases, leading to severe inconsistencies in eyewitness memory and the subsequent testimony provided. Weapon focus 31 . A schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information. Though some of the studies suggest that the effect of this phenomenon is maximum when the focus of attention is narrow and the eyewitness is in a state of high arousal, there are studies that suggest that the complexity of the incident or the crime witnessed by a person can interfere with the ability of the witness to recollect details. WEAPON FOCUS EFFECT: Anxiety can have a negative effect on recall because it . Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. This second edition of Psychology and Law: Truthfulness, Accuracy and Credibility is a substantially revised and exhaustive review of forensic research to do with credibility and the accuracy of evidence. In 2011, the New Jersey SC in State v. Larry R. Henderson entirely revised their legal framework for admitting eyewitness evidence, basing it on an extensive appraisal of scientific research on eyewitness psychology. 19 . As exhaustively indicated by hundreds of peer-reviewed social science publications and by the recent spate of exonerations based on DNA evidence, the memory and testimony of eyewitnesses is far from infallible. That is because you would not expect to see a man holding a gun at a tennis match, but you would expect him to be holding the bat. According to some researchers, the accounts provided by witnesses are generally reliable. A police case is constructed purely based on evidence collected and even a charge sheet isn’t filed in the absence of adequate evidence giving rise to reasonable doubt in favour of allegations made. The study also suggested that a weapon in itself is inconsistent with an activated schema. We hope you are enjoying Psychologenie - we provide informative and helpful articles about traditional and alternative therapy methods and medications that you can come back to again and again when you have questions or want to learn more. In Perry v. New Hampshire, Justice Sotomayor dissented, highlighting studies on the high vulnerability of eyewitness testimony and stating that the existing empirical evidence against the accuracy of such evidence is rarely taken into account. A person focuses on a central detail (e.g., a knife) and loses focus on the peripheral details (e.g. We use schemas to create shortcuts so that we don’t have to pay attention to every single piece of information. In some cases, the anxiety people experience as a result of such events may alter their perceptions of whom or what they saw. If a gun or knife is presented or used at the scene of the crime, it can often intensify and personalize the way a witness is feeling about the situation. 21 witnesses, 13 participated. We simply cannot process all of that information as fast as the person is talking to us. Witnesses are unreliable when they are threatened with a weapon. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Time and time again, studies have shown that the mere presence of a weapon will cause the witnesses to focus more on the weapon and less on the person holding it and what they are doing. The effect of weapon focus is the reduction of the witness's ability to concentrate on other details of a crime. Though laboratory studies on this phenomenon have given conflicting results, and the findings of such studies may not always apply to real forensic situations, the importance of circumstantial factors can never be stressed enough. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. This calls for a reminder on the importance of evidence in criminal law. Amina Memon, Serena Mastroberardino, Joanne Fraser, Münsterberg's legacy: What does eyewitness research tell us about the reliability of eyewitness testimony?, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10.1002/acp.1487, 22, 6, (841-851), (2008). The book will explore offenders’ memories with particular emphasis on theory and empirical research on such topics as memorial patterns in perpetrators, instrumental and reactive offenders, crime-related amnesia, crime-related brain ... There are many studies that have proven that the presence of an unexpected weapon reduces how accurately someone identifies the suspect or other details of the event. This volume gathers evidence from various research domains on eyewitness testimony. Found insideThis manual provides guiding principles to effective interviewing, with specific techniques to be used and others to be avoided. In the first experiment, subjects viewed a mock crime scene in which a weapon was either highly visible or mostly hidden from view. Eyewitness memory experts likely related this statement to the weapon focus effect (e.g., Kramer et al., 1990; Loftus, Loftus, & Messo, 1987), a phenomenon demonstrating that eyewitness memory for faces and other details is poorer if a weapon was present during a crime (Fawcett, Fawcett, Peace, & Christie, 2013). This book is the authoritative work for students and professionals in psychology and law. This area of eyewitness psychology is known as weapon focus; unfortunately this distraction results in a very poor eyewitness testimony as the witness is unable to recall events and descriptions. Eyewitness testimony should be admissible in court, but it should be admitted with caution and with an understanding that there are certain factors such as weapon focus and compromised memories which can reduce the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Hence, in the acquisition phase, the focus on weapon leads to the presentation of information that may result in poor or inaccurate eyewitness testimonies during retrieval in a court of .
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