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Eyewitness Accuracy

Eyewitnesses' memories darken skin color

Eyewitnesses remember the faces of black suspects less accurately in drive-by shootings than they do in serial killings. Their memories are further skewed when the victims are women or white males, psychology researchers have found. Ref. Source 4t.

Accuracy Eyewitness

Interesting findings but is it applicable to law? I mean will police take this research and apply it to eye witness accounts in order to determine if someone is telling it as it really happened?

Eyewitness Accuracy History & Civil Business Politics

Unfortunately it is a well known phenomena that eyewitness testimony is so untrustworthy (At least in the scientific field). Memories are not immutable photographs or recordings of what happened. Every time we recall a memory, we actually edit it slightly, especially if other people are present who should also know what happened. I you see a tall man with blue shoes steal a lady's purse, but then someone else says to catch the man with the red shoes, you are more likely to think the man had red shoes. Unless you are actively committing the details of everything around you to memory, it is hard to accurately recall something that started off as ordinary (Like just walking down the street).

Accuracy Eyewitness

Is it their 'memory' darkening the skin color or their prejudices? Many link crime to a certain skin color and that can be a factor.

Accuracy Eyewitness

Eyewitnesses who collaborate make fewer mistakes in police interview

Witnesses correct each other's errors. Two recently published research studies show that witnesses make fewer errors when they are interviewed together than when they are interviewed separately. This stands in sharp contrast with current police guidelines to always interview witnesses separately. Ref. Source 8s.

Eyewitness Accuracy

Witnesses confuse innocent and guilty suspects with 'unfair' lineups


Police lineups in which distinctive individual marks or features are not altered can impair witnesses' ability to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects, according to new research. Ref. Source 8g.