Mathematics 1228A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Eyewitness Identification, Miscarriage Of Justice, Preliminary Hearing
29 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 1: Psychology and the Law
The Canadian Justice System
Case: Thomas Sophonow had 3 trials and spent 4 years in jail for a murder he did not commit
- Wrongful conviction b/c of his resemblance to police sketch
- If he was innocent, why did eyewitnesses say he was the person?
- Why did two juries believe them?
1. Someone commits a crime, police arrest a suspect
2. Preliminary hearing= Crown attorney’s office decides whether enough evidence to press
charges
3. If lots of evidence for trail, both defence + prosecution make negotiations
- First impressions of accused + witness have powerful effects
- In courtroom, attitude and persuasion techniques made
- Social psychologists study legal sys to understand basic psychologists+ impt in daily life
Eyewitness Testimony
- In Canada, great deal of significance to eyewitness testimony
- Jurors rely heavily on eyewitnesses and overestimate accuracy of them
Staged Calculator Theft:
1. The more visual info= higher % of correct identification
2. Jurors overestimated the accuracy of eyewitnesses
“Mistaken eyewitness identification is responsible for more wrongful convictions than all other
causations”
➢ Why are Eyewitnesses Often Wrong?
- Eyewitness= social perception
3 Stages of Memory Processing:
1. Acquisition= what ppl notice and perceive
Limits: poor viewing conditions, people see what they expect to see, focus on
weapons, own-race bias
- 1.6 m away and shit gets difficult to see. distance= accuracy of identification
- eg. when he thought old lady died of age, but she was strangeled to death.
Thus saw what he expected to see and failed to see unexpected
- Research shows people are poor at recognizing the unexpected
- “own-race bias”= The finding that people are better at recognizing faces
within their own race than those of other races (when more than one
race/upbringing, it is race with which we have the most contact b/c look
more closely to distinguish such as: height of cheekbones or contour of
forehead. With others, identify race and stop there. E.g., “John’s nose” vs
“black nose”)
2. Storage= what ppl store in memory; “photo album”
Limits: misleading questions, source monitoring errors
- Memories can get mingled with other memories; far from permanent
- “reconstructive memory” = process where memories of an event become
distorted by info encountered after the event has happened
- wording of the question subtly adds new information during questioning
- most likely to incorporate misinformation if event witnessed produces
negative emotions
- misleading questions= “sourcing monitoring” = people try to identify the
source of their memories
o eg. news on radio or in print
3. Retrieval= process which people recall info stored in their memory
Limits: “best guess” problem in lineup identification, negative effects of
verbalization
- Research shows that if an eyewitness picks up a suspect from a lineup,
jurors, judge, and police assume the witness is right
- Lineup is more effective than showing eyewitnesses only one photo
Social psychologists suggest this to police when doing a suspect lineup:
• Everyone in the lineup looks like the description of the suspect
• Tell the witness suspect may/may not be in the lineup
o More false identification if they think culprit is in line
• Do not include the suspect in the first lineup
o If witness picks from first lineup= unreliable witness
• Make sure that the person conducting the lineup does not know which
person is the suspect
• Present pics of ppl sequentially instead of simultaneously
o Difficult for witness to compare
20
MATH 1228A/B Full Course Notes
Verified Note
20 documents
Document Summary
Case: thomas sophonow had 3 trials and spent 4 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. Wrongful conviction b/c of his resemblance to police sketch. First impressions of accused + witness have powerful effects. Social psychologists study legal sys to understand basic psychologists+ impt in daily life. In canada, great deal of significance to eyewitness testimony. Jurors rely heavily on eyewitnesses and overestimate accuracy of them. Staged calculator theft: the more visual info= higher % of correct identification, jurors overestimated the accuracy of eyewitnesses. Mistaken eyewitness identification is responsible for more wrongful convictions than all other causations . 3 stages of memory processing: acquisition= what ppl notice and perceive. Limits: poor viewing conditions, people see what they expect to see, focus on weapons, own-race bias. 1. 6 m away and shit gets difficult to see. distance= accuracy of identification. Eg. when he thought old lady died of age, but she was strangeled to death.
