Page 24 - Veritas

RESEARCH ARTICLE

WHOM DID YOU SEE?

Ms. Ann Mariya Thomas
Ms. Jocelyn Kunju John
Ms. Lorraine Tissan
Ms. Sumha Tehreem
Ms. Gayathri L Nair
Ms. Prathiksha R S

Imagine you are going back home from work. Just as you are about to turn

right, a shrill cry reaches your ears. You turn and hurry in the direction of
the sound. A little way off the road, you see a woman holding a gun and

a bleeding man on the ground. Before you could do anything the woman
shoots the man in the head twice. You catch sight of her face as she turns

but before you are noticed, you run away. It’s been one week since the in-
cident and you are on your way to the police station to identify the suspect

from a line-up. You had reported what you saw the day after it happened.
You are certain you know what she looked like. So, when asked to point

out the perpetrator, you confidently go for the woman standing on the far
left. Later, you come to know that you picked an innocent woman. Why do

you think this happened?

During trials, eyewitness accounts secure a vital role in criminal convic-
tions. Police surveys show that eyewitness testimony is the main form of

evidence in more than 20% of cases. But that doesn’t mean the evidence
is always reliable. Research shows that 75% of false convictions are caused

by an inaccurate eyewitness statement.

Further research into this area has found that eyewitness testimony can be
affected by many psychological factors like:

• Anxiety / Stress

• Reconstructive Memory
• Weapon Focus

• Leading Questions (Loftus and Palmer, 1974)

“Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has been particularly concerned with how
subsequent information can affect an eyewitness’s account of an event.

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