Rock-Solid Reliability? The Shaky Ground of Eyewitness Testimonies

Regina, Canada, Aug 21 (The Conversation): In crime dramas, the intense moment when an eyewitness identifies a suspect from a police lineup often convinces viewers of the suspect's guilt. This sense of certainty spills over into real-world investigations. However, the reliability of eyewitness testimony can be deceptive, as incorrect identifications frequently lead to wrongful convictions.

Eyewitness mistakes, particularly with child witnesses, pose an increased risk of error. While children can accurately identify a perpetrator when present in a lineup, they are more prone than adults to mistakenly identify innocent individuals when the actual perpetrator is absent. An alarming example occurred in 1990, when a six-year-old girl’s identification of Levon Brooks culminated in his wrongful imprisonment for 16 years, until DNA evidence exonerated him.

One critical problem is the absence of a definitive method to verify the accuracy of an eyewitness's identification. As forensic psychology researchers, our focus has been on enhancing the reliability of eyewitness evidence involving children. We developed a novel police lineup method to better assess the likelihood of guilt in cases involving child witnesses.

The CSI effect, stemming from media portrayals of streamlined, infallible investigations, influences expectations in real-life cases, overshadowing the complex nature of actual investigations. Though eyewitness testimony is often deemed highly reliable in court, it is susceptible to error, especially given the challenges of recalling events under stress.

Children, notably those under eight, are particularly vulnerable to making mistakes while overconfidently asserting their certainty, making their identifications seemingly persuasive to jurors. Our proposed solution is the multiple independent lineup (MIL) technique, intended to gauge the reliability of a child’s identification decision.

Incorporating MIL involves subjecting the child to several independent lineups, focusing on different features such as faces, bodies, and voices. The principle is that increased suspect identification across various lineups signifies a greater likelihood of the suspect’s guilt.

In our research, children aged six to 11 made identification decisions from six separate lineups. If a suspect was identified in the face lineup only, it suggested innocence. However, selection in the face lineup and two other lineups indicated a 96% probability of guilt, rising to 100% with identifications in three or more lineups.

Our experiments, conducted under diverse conditions with over 900 children, consistently demonstrate the potential of this method to reflect the likelihood of a suspect's guilt based on lineup identifications.

While promising, this method requires further research to determine the suitability of the MIL technique for real-world application with actual eyewitnesses. Continuing exploration into methods that assess the accuracy of child eyewitnesses can help mitigate wrongful convictions. Public awareness about the limitations of eyewitness memory, especially among children, is also vital to counteract the CSI effect and foster informed judgments in court proceedings.

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