Accuracy of Eye Witnesses

The author, Simon Howard, is a scholar at the University of Milwauke in the United States. His article targets the whites, and black exonerates. Howard addresses the target audience on life after release from prison. He discusses the differences in the implications of experiences of the whites and blacks during post-incarceration and challenges they go through. He points on the guilt, warmth, competence and aggression of exonerates. The results of the research show that black exonerates are more aggressive and likely to commit a crime and go for imprisonment. He finds out that the whites are more mentally ill than the blacks. This article is a viable reference for examples of convicts due to incorrect testimonies of eye witnesses.

Bolinger, Renée Jorgensen. “The Rational Impermissibility Of Accepting (Some) Racial Generalizations”. Synthese, vol 197, no. 6, 2018, pp. 2415-2431. Springer Science And Business Media LLC, doi:10.1007/s11229-018-1809-5. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.

The author, Renee Jorgensen Bolinger, is an Associate Professor in Princeton’s Department of Politics and the University centre for human values. Her research focuses on racial generalizations and how they may affect the quality of evidence and personal accounts. Bolinger’s article targets a law practising audience with the intent of enlightening them on how racial generalizations may affect testimonies but is also suitable for scholars in eyewitness psychology.  Bolinger argues that racial generalizations may affect the moral norm. The article is suitable for guiding research on eyewitnesses’ testimonies as it shows how race may affect the way people interpret situations, particularly inferences made from a particular incidence.

Hunt, Jennifer S. “Race, Ethnicity, And Culture In Jury Decision Making”. Annual Review Of Law And Social Science, vol 11, no. 1, 2015, pp. 269-288. Annual Reviews, doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-120814-121723. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.

The author, Jennifer Hunt, is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research targets law and social science practitioners. The author researches how a juries’ race and ethnicity affects judgement pertaining suspects in a court of law. Hunt shows how juries’ interaction with the suspect affects the judgement to pass on him or her. Hunt argues out that the jury as an eyewitness to the witnesses in a court of law might get influenced by the race the suspect comes from, and this may lead to racial discrimination in her final ruling and the kind of punishment to be passed to the suspect. The author’s article is relevant as it reviews a growing body of social science research that race influence judgement and behaviours of juries.

Frumkin, Lara A., and Anna Stone. “Not All Eyewitnesses Are Equal: Accent Status, Race And Age Interact To Influence Evaluations Of Testimony”. Journal Of Ethnicity In Criminal Justice, vol 18, no. 2, 2020, pp. 123-145. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/15377938.2020.1727806. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.

 The authors, Lara and stone, are scholars at The Open University, Milton Keyens and School of Psychology and Counselling at The University of East London respectively. Lara and stone argue out that not all eyewitnesses are equal in terms of race and ethnicity; therefore, their testimony is affected. The two authors target juries who need to be keen on the testimonies given by the eyewitnesses before passing judgements on suspects. In their research, they argue that white eyewitnesses are preferred to black witnesses in courtrooms because of their high-status accents. The court system needs to question court decisions based on witness and observer characteristics may affect the accuracy of evidence versus the court’s judgement. The article reviews that some suspects were victims of eyewitness’s false evidence to race biasness

Maeder, Evelyn M., and Susan Yamamoto. “Attributions In The Courtroom: The Influence Of Race, Incentive, And Witness Type On Jurors’ Perceptions Of Secondary Confessions”. Psychology, Crime & Law, vol 23, no. 4, 2016, pp. 361-375. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/1068316x.2016.1258473. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.

            The authors, Maeder and Yamamoto, an associate of criminology and criminal justice and a scholar in the department of psychology, respectively at Carleton University, reflect on the influence of race in this article. Both authors target law practitioners to shed more light to them on how to pass judgement in their daily activities in the courtrooms. The study investigates how the race of eyewitnesses’ and suspects influence the passing of the verdict by the judges. In their research, they observed that in the absence of eyewitnesses, the jury convicted the white defendant more often. The informant race, defendant race affected the verdict. The topic is crucial as it enlightens the jurors from considering the role of race in their judgement.

Davies, Graham. “Handbook Of Eyewitness Psychology. Volume 1. Memory For Events. Michael P. Toglia, J. Don Read, David F. Ross And R. C. L. Lindsay (Eds.). No. Of Pages 703. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-8058-5151-8”. Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol 21, no. 8, 2007, pp. 1113-1114. Wiley, doi:10.1002/acp.1397.

Davies Graham, a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Hull, is the author of the article. Graham targets to impact knowledge and invaluable help to researchers, legal scholars and law practitioners who require access to the research. The author extensively reviews the impacts of the accuracy of evidence given by eyewitnesses of all ages. He reviews that the testimonies of expert end eye witness are based on various factors such as credibility. The difference may influence an incredible eye witness in the race, which leads to inaccuracy of the judgement. The topic is relevant as it will aid researchers to evaluate the amount of caution and diligence used during prosecution.

Maeder, Evelyn M., and Logan Ewanation. “What Makes Race Salient? Juror Decision-Making In Same-Race Versus Cross-Race Identification Scenarios And The Influence Of Expert Testimony”. Criminal Justice And Behavior, vol 45, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1234-1251. SAGE Publications, doi:10.1177/0093854818776998. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.   

The authors, Maedar and Ewanation, are associates at Carleton University. The authors target jurors of different courtrooms as the audience in the article. The researchers in their study perceive that black/white jurors would produce different decisions when faced by a black/white defendant identified by a black/white eyewitness. The authors identify that expert testimony was highly valued when the defendant was black but had no direct influence on the verdict. The authors intended to emphasize the impact of race salience and its association with the rate of conviction. It is relevant to the topic to enable law practitioners to make a sound decision in their area of work.

Bothwell, Robert K. et al. “Cross-Racial Identification”. Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin, vol 15, no. 1, 1989, pp. 19-25. SAGE Publications, doi:10.1177/0146167289151002. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.

The authors, Bothwell and Brighan, are scholars at the University of Texas and Florida State University, respectively. Their research target law practitioners where they enlighten them on race biasness and conviction in a court of law. They analyzed examples and revealed that eyewitnesses and jurors tend to be biased when passing judgement when they are from a similar race, thereby affecting the judgement. The study indicates that the memory of own-race faces is superior to memory for other-race faces. It will enable the target audience to change on memory face race biasness.

Brigham, John C. et al. “Accuracy Of Eyewitness Identification In A Field Setting.”. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, vol 42, no. 4, 1982, pp. 673-681. American Psychological Association (APA), doi:10.1037/0022-3514.42.4.673. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.

The authors are researchers in different fields of study who wrote the article target audience as sociologists and psychologists, whose purpose is to enlighten them on the accuracy of different people from different races. In their research, they perform experiments on an eyewitness identifying a suspect in a field setting and the accuracy in it. After the experiment, biasness was evident as people of the same race was found among the whites while the blacks showed their recognition accuracy by the race. The article is relevant to show how judgement is affected by biasness of one’s race.

Brigham, John C., and David J. Ready. “Own-Race Bias In Lineup Construction.”. Law And Human Behavior, vol 9, no. 4, 1985, pp. 415-424. American Psychological Association (APA), doi:10.1007/bf01044480. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.

Ready and Brigham are both scholars in the Department of Psychology at Florida State University who targeted audience of sociologists who observe behaviours of the suspects from different. The black and white subjects were asked to construct line ups with both black and white suspects. Their behaviour was very similar while making lineups but different on black line ups. Based on their performances, white subjects became less selective on their blackline ups. Both groups displayed their own race bias by being more selective. It is suitable for guiding research on eyewitness testimonies as it shows how eyewitness lead to jurors making poor judgement due to biasness in the race.