Mistaken Eyewitness Identification Notes

What is a Mistaken Eyewitness ID?
●​ When individuals incorrectly identify someone as being involved in a crime.
●​ In one study, 20% of eyewitness selected an innocent person (Valentine et al., 2003)

Cause of Mistaken Eyewitness IDs
●​ Leading Questions
●​ Stress
●​ Schemas
●​ Memory Conformity
○​ Memory is malleable

Estimator Variables
●​ Own-Race Bias
○​ People tend to make more correct IDs and fewer false IDs for own-race faces
■​ Morphological Basis
■​ Immersion and Upbringing
●​ Weapon Focus
○​ Presence of a weapon impairs memory and accuracy of IDs
■​ Psychological Arousal/Anxiety
■​ Unusualness Explanation
●​ Exposure Conditions
○​ Duration
○​ Lighting
○​ Disguises
●​ Witness Conditions
○​ Stress
○​ Intoxication

System Variables
●​ Line-up Type + Construction
●​ Interview Style
●​ Identification Procedure
○​ Unbiased Instructions
○​ Double-Blind
○​ Post ID Feedback

Consequences of Mistaken Eyewitness Identifications
●​ Contributing Causes of Wrongful Convictions (325 DNA exoneration cases)
○​ Eyewitness Misidentification (72%, 235 cases)
○​ Unvalidated/Improper Forensics (47%, 154 cases)
○​ False Confessions/Admissions (27%, 88 cases)
○​ Informants/Snitches (15%, 48 cases)