The Influence of Delay and Item Difficulty in Criminal Justice Systems on Eyewitness Confidence and Accuracy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8249669 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jacqueline M Wheatcroft (0000-0001-7212-1598), Graham F Wagstaff, Brian Manarin |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Pages | 1-9 |
| Publication date | 2015-12-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2371-1655 • E-ISSN: 2371-1655 |
| Publisher | Lifescience Global (PUBLISHER • CA) |
| DOI | 10.6000/2371-1655.2015.01.01 |
| OpenAlex | W1588114520 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 1 |
There is international concern about the negative effects of delays in Criminal Justice Systems. Problems include the deleterious effects that delay can have on witnesses' memory accuracy and witnesses' ability to calibrate their memories accurately. Little empirical work has been conducted on these issues combined with item difficulty and the relationship between accuracy and confidence. This paper investigates these issues. 21 witnesses were interviewed about an observed crime and required to answer lawyerly questions used in crossexamination relating to target items classified as 'easy', 'moderate' and 'difficult', in terms of memorability. Participants were interviewed again, 6 months later. A 6 month delay significantly reduced memory accuracy for all levels of question difficulty. Within-subjects C-A relationships seemed to be relatively unaffected by delay; i.e. they tended to be positive for easy and moderate items, and negative for difficult items. Between-subjects C-A relationships were also positive for both easy and moderate items, but improved after 6 months; whereas C-A relationships for the difficult items remained negative and statistically insignificant following the 6 month delay. Delay can have a profound negative effect on witness accuracy that is not likely to be compensated for by improvements in C-A calibration
Criminal justice · Criminology · Data mining · Economic Justice · Eyewitness identification · Eyewitness testimony · Political science · Computer Science · Deception detection and forensic psychology · Memory Processes and Influences · Psychology · Radiology practices and education · Law · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |