Eyewitness identification of criminal suspects from lineups and photospreads is the largest single cause of false imprisonment in the United States. Research programs have outlined experimentally proven techniques to reduce the dangers. Levi and Jungman have proposed a radical technique in which eyewitnesses choose several people from a large set of photos based on their similarity to the culprit. They argue that this will help solve many problems, including the tendency for courts to overbelieve eyewitnesses. Some problems and prospects for this new technique are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Leippe, M. R. (1980). Effects of integrative memorial and cognitive processes on the correspondence of eyewitness accuracy and confidence. Law and Human Behavior, 4, 261-274.
2.
Luus, C.A.E. , & Wells, G. L. (1994). The malleability of eyewitness confidence: Co-witness and perseverance effects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 714-724.
3.
Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188 (1972).
4.
Wells, G. L. (1984). The psychology of lineup identifications. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 14, 89-103.
5.
Wells, G. L. (1993). What do we know about eyewitness identification?American Psychologist, 48, 553-571.
6.
Wells, G. L. , & Murray, D. M. (1983). What can psychology say about the Neil v. Biggers criteria for judging eyewitness identification accuracy?Journal of Applied Psychology, 68, 347-362.
