Psychological diplomacies to enhance the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

 In any crime situation, statements of the eyewitness are highly important for the progress of the investigation. Eyewitnesses have power to narrate original happenings at crime spots and assist in offering persuasive legal testimony. In simple expression, an eyewitness is the main observer of a crime scene in initial legal enquiry.

Eyewitness evidence can immensely impact the process of criminal investigations and courtroom judgements. Eyewitness testimony consists of collecting, storing and recalling the relevant facts about the crime scene. Memories of crime happening involve attention, encoding, short-term memory and long-term memory. Major issue of storing memory is the decay of certain information with time. Sometimes eyewitnesses misinterpret the images, voices and people involved in crime.

There is a heated incongruity among legal experts and criminal investigators on the information provided by Eyewitness where crime occurred.  Some professionals support the eyewitness testimony and provide a strong base for courtroom verdicts. On the contrary, challengers voice that eyewitness testimony may be distorted and provide vague explanations of the scene of an alleged crime.

There are numerous factors that raise concern over the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. According to criminal investigators, eyewitnesses can recollect precise information of the crime that happened immediately. As time passes and rigorous interrogation by police or investigators, memories of eyewitnesses may fade or become contaminated which results in inaccurate or false convictions. Another concern related to eyewitnesses’ testimony is the Memory decay. eyewitnesses may not recollect important cues or data when they are interrogated after a month as legal proceedings or trials take a long time for justice of the victim. 

Crime events are horrifying and a person who witnesses the occurrence of crime may undergo intense stress and trauma. In mentally disturbed conditions, eyewitnesses lost their intellect to logically reproduce the details of crime happening. Another strong factor that influences eyewitness convictions is the ambiance of crime spots. These conditions may interfere in remembering or recounting the step-by-step violent crime occurrence such as dim light, distance, any bizarre sound. A person’s biases is another issue that misleads the crime scene investigation.

Eyewitness testimony can be more accurate with the involvement of Forensic psychologists. Psychology experts apply myriads of tested psychological practices to convince eyewitnesses and secure them to provide reliable and sequential information of crime occurrence. Effective psychological tactics for collating accurate data of crime spots from eyewitnesses include cognitive interviews and line-up procedures. Forensic psychologists deeply interrogate eyewitnesses and ask open-ended questions, using mental imagery, and inspire the witness to recollect the edge details about the crime event. Forensic psychology thoroughly investigates the relation between human behavior and facts of crime happening from the angle of psychological theories to represent authentic data collected by eyewitnesses.

Brief analytic note for legal authorities:

Crime investigation is the challenging task of legal investigators. They rely on eyewitness testimony to start the investigation process for alleged crime. eyewitness testimony is helpful in the progress of investigation and legal trials. Witnessing crime scenes, eyewitness testimony may be inaccurate due memory decline, personal bias and misrepresentation of information. Forensic psychologists contribute greatly to digging out the actual facts about crime scenes through cognitive interviews and applying motivating tactics on eyewitnesses.

Important note:

Above article is composed on the basis of environmental inputs, and reveals the expressions of the writer. Information provided in the article is for general awareness. Readers must refer to legal experts for specific legal queries.  Any resemblance is just a coincidence. Writer is not responsible for any disagreement.