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Why Is Eyewitness Testimony Reliable

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Eyewitness testimony is a legal term, referring to a person’s interpretation of an event they have seen. Judges have a tendency to pay close attention to eyewitness testimony and find it a trustworthy source of information. Nevertheless, investigation into this area has found that eyewitness testimony can be affected by numerous psychological factor (Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C., 1974). Eyewitness testimony is not as reliable as it may seem at the first glance.
It is commonly known that a person would react differently in a stressful situation to how he would react normally. Witnessing a crime is always stressful. The more serious the crime is, the more anxiety a person will feel. However, feeling a little stressed helps improving performance …show more content…
This can be interpreted as we fit what we remember with what we know and understand about the world, often we change our memories so it makes more sense to us. The eyewitness may recall false events, thinking they are correct, which will be misleading for a case.
Type of questioning the eyewitness is also important and might become the reason of reduction of the reliability of eyewitness statement. Loftus’ findings seem to indicate that memory of an event that has been observed is highly flexible. If someone is exposed to new information during the break between witnessing the event and recalling it, this new information may have marked effects on what they recall. The original memory can be changed, modified or supplemented (McLeod, 2010).
The role of emotion can also play a significant part in affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Whether it is a matter of being involved in such an accident or a pointed gun. Loftus et al (1987) introduced the ‘weapon effect’, this proposes that as soon as a weapon is seen by a witness, their attention is drawn to it as it is a very frightening experience consequently distracting the witness from the criminals appearance, reducing the accuracy of the eyewitness

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