Forensic Psychology: Assessing Eyewitness and Their Statements in Criminal Investigations, Lecture notes of Psychology

Download Forensic Psychology: Assessing Eyewitness and Their Statements in Criminal Investigations and more Lecture notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! 26 Forensic Psychology: Police and the Law UNIT 2 ASSESSMENT OF EYEWITNESS AND THEIR STATEMENTS Structure 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Objectives 2.2 Eyewitness Assessment 2.2.1 Definition of Eyewitness 2.2.2 Role of an Eyewitness 2.2.3 Assessment of Eyewitness 2.2.4 Forensic Psychology and Eyewitness Assessment of Eyewitness and their Statement 2.3 Approaches to the Study of Eyewitness Assessment 2.4 Methodological Limitations 2.5 Nature of Eyewitness Testing 2.5.1 Recall of Details and Perpetrator Identification 2.5.2 Procedures to Assess Eyewitness 2.5.3 Types of Variables Studied 2.6 Tools and Methods Used by Forensic Psychologists in India 2.6.1 Polygraph Test 2.6.2 Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling (BEOSP) 2.6.3 Narcoanalysis 2.7 Post Event Information 2.8 Relation Between Accuracy and Confidence 2.8.1 Improvement of the Reliability and Accuracy of Witness Statement 2.8.2 Cognitive Interview 2.9 Let Us Sum Up 2.10 Unit End Questions 2.11 Suggested Readings and References 2.0 INTRODUCTION In this unit we will be dealing with the definition of eyewitness and the role of eyewitness in a crime. We will be dealing with also role of eyewitness assessment in a court of law. The relationship between forensic psychology and eyewitness assessment will be then discussed. This unit will then cover the various approaches to the study of eyewitness assessment and indicate the many methodological limitations. The nature of eyewitness testing will then be taken up with recall details and perpetrator identification. The many procedures to assess eyewitness will then be put forward. The number of variables studied in this regard will be listed out and explained. This unit will then take up some of the tools and methods used by forensic psychologists in India which includes the polygraph test, narcoanalysis and BEOSP. There will then be a discussion on post event information and how far there is a relationship between eyewitness accuracy and confidence. Then the many methods for improving the reliability and accuracy 27 Assessment of Eyewitness and Their Statements will be put forward. Finally there will be a discussion about the cognitive interview. 2.1 OBJECTIVES After completing this unit, you will be able to: • Define eyewitness; • Describe Eyewitness testimony; • Explain the methods of assessment of eyewitness testimony; • List out the methodological limitations; • Describe the various tools and methods used by forensic psychologists in India; • Define Post event information; and • Analyse the methods by which reliability and confidence on the tools cold be improved. 2.2 EYEWITNESS ASSESSMENT 2.2.1 Definition of Eyewitness Simply put an eyewitness is someone who has been a spectator of a dramatic event or a crime scene first hand, the one who can give an account of the event. For example if I am walking down the street and I notice a brawl happening between two individuals. There is crowd gathered and I join the crowd. Suddenly it gets ugly and police has to be called. Now even though I may not know any of these individuals but I am an eyewitness to the event along with others gathered around. 2.2.2 Role of an Eyewitness In a Democracy like India the role of the judiciary is significant. Judiciary administers justice according to law. Thus when a crime takes place justice is sought by examining the truth regarding the crime and handing penalty accordingly. Eyewitness account or testimony has a strong impact on criminal investigations and courtroom verdicts.. Although sorting out credibility and making judgments about the truth of witness statements by the opposing counsel follows. 2.2.3 Assessment of Eyewitness By now we know how crucial eyewitness account is during a case trial. But what about the fact that an eyewitness is a human and thus is subject to all sorts of human errors? Or what if the eyewitness deliberately tries to mislead the case? So to minimise or control these loopholes experts in memory, forensic psychology, neuroscience and the law aim to come up with a versatile toolkit that will help police officers and judges evaluate the likely reliability of individual witnesses. Thus assessment of eyewitness and their statements has become an entire body of research. 30 Forensic Psychology: Police and the Law 2.5.1 Recall of Details and Perpetrator Identification Two categories of eyewitness information of special interest to researchers are the details of the crime and of the perpetrator. It is recognised that the measurement of accuracy of recalled details is highly dependent upon the types of questions used to elicit responses. For example, police investigators regularly interviewed witnesses and victims, yet their interviews were usually not based upon techniques known to enhance recall in cognitive and social psychology. As of 1983 this situation began to change as researchers applied cognitive principles to police interviewing. One result was a specific interview protocol known as the cognitive interview (Fisher and Geiselman 1992) that has well demonstrated its superiority in gathering more correct information from both adults and children without increasing the numbers of errors. The misidentification of an innocent person is a particularly dramatic kind of eyewitness error because of its serious consequences for a person’s freedom. Indeed, legal opinion in most countries has emphasised the dangers of convictions based upon eyewitness testimony evidence alone (Cutler and Penrod 1995). As increasing numbers of demonstrably faulty convictions were studied, it became readily apparent that simple manipulations of photos and test instructions could have large effects upon the identification decisions of eyewitnesses. For example, Loftus (1979) showed that presenting a photo with a unique quality or different alignment in a photospread significantly raised the number of misidentifications of the person depicted in the photo. Analyses of both live and photo lineups in real cases have shown many to be poorly constructed and when so constructed, heavily biased against the police suspect (Wells and Bradfield 1998). Further, minor wording changes in the instructions given witnesses before they view a lineup dramatically raise the rate of false positive errors or selections of an innocent person. Indeed, false positive rates of 50 percent or more are not uncommon and Wells and Bradfield (1998) recently reported that when instructions encouraged witnesses to believe falsely that the perpetrator was in the photospread, all witnesses selected someone. Similarly, social pressure from an authority figure or from other witnesses can influence lineup decisions. In particular, information may be subtly conveyed from investigators to witnesses by the kinds of questions asked of the witnesses and the investigator’s responses to answers given. Wells and Bradfield (1998) have shown that when research participants were informed falsely that their identification choices had been correct, their descriptions of the perceptual qualities of the event itself were dramatically altered, for example, how much time and attention they had directed to the perpetrator, the ease and confidence of their identification, and their willingness to testify in court. 2.5.2 Procedures to Assess Eyewitness There are a variety of procedures that researchers adopt to assess witness. Some of them are: Real life cases Some researchers take up real life cases to study eye witness assessment. It helps the researcher study some important aspects like personal threat, stress, emotional arousal etc. which are not feasible in laboratory studies. 31 Assessment of Eyewitness and Their Statements As real life cases can also have their disadvantage as lack of control of extraneous variables a lot of researchers assess eyewitness by simulated studies in laboratory. Videotape clip The instructor can make a video clip of a staged crime or can show video clip of a crime from some movie or so. Staged live demonstration Instructor can create a staged live demonstration in which an actor or a group of actors interrupt a class and perform an act. As the eyewitness witnesses the crime or event either in real life or laboratory setting it is then decided how to assess the witness. Some of the procedures to assess certain variables of eyewitness like memory the researcher adopts a method like: Live lineup A live lineup or identity parade is a process by which a crime victim or witness identifies the perpetrator. The perpetrator might or might not be present in the lineup. Photo Spread method It is simultaneous presentation of photographs out of which perpetrator has to be identified by the witness. Sequential Photo Presentation It involves showing a witness a single photo- graph or a single suspect at a time rather than a traditional simultaneous presentation 2.5.3 Types of Variables Studied Factors of interest to researchers may be classified as either estimator or system variables (Wells 1993) i) Estimator Variables In real world these variables are not under the control of either the criminal investigator or the criminal justice system and their effects upon eyewitness identification accuracy may only be estimated, for example, the age, sex, and race of the witnesses and the lighting conditions at the scene of the crime may be related to reliability of eyewitness testimony but they are inherent to the crime itself. Knowledge of the effects of these variables may assist us to better characterize the average performance levels that are obtained by specific types of people in particular environmental and viewing conditions. ii) System Variables On the other hand these variables are under the control of the criminal justice system, for example, the size, type, and quality of the lineup or photospread, the instructions given the witnesses, and the temporal interval between the crime and the identification task. Wells (1993) has argued vigorously that researchers should dedicate more effort understanding system variables because the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness testimony can be improved by manipulating features of the system itself. 32 Forensic Psychology: Police and the Law A striking example of this kind of improvement may be seen in the recommendation (Lindsay and Wells 1985, Wells 1993) that lineup or photospread members be presented one at a time to an eyewitness rather than together. Although simultaneous presentation of lineup and photospread members has been normative in North America and the UK for many years, doing so is well known to encourage the use of a relative judgment strategy by which witnesses attempt to choose the person who best fits their memory of the perpetrator. The difficulty with relative judgments is that every lineup or photospread necessarily includes someone who looks most like the perpetrator and, therefore, someone will virtually always be chosen. Mistaken identifications will necessarily comprise a subset of these choices. Indeed, the high levels of false positives reported for identification tests are a likely consequence of just such a strategy. In contrast, a sequential lineup presents each member one at a time and the goal is to force witnesses to rely upon an absolute judgment strategy. For each lineup member shown, the witness must indicate whether this person matches the representation of the perpetrator in memory. Once a person or photo has been presented, it may not be viewed again. To further reduce the opportunity to make relative judgments, witnesses are not informed of the number of people in the lineup. Thus, for the witness who attempts to use a relative judgment strategy, there remains the possibility that there may yet be someone who is even more like the perpetrator among the as yet unseen lineup members. In research comparing sequential to simultaneous lineup performance the two presentation procedures yield identical hit rates (correct identifications of the target) for target-present lineups (when the guilty person is included). However, in target-absent lineups (in which the perpetrator is not present), significantly fewer false positives are made with the sequential than the simultaneous lineup. Thus, when police investigators employ a sequential procedure, innocent persons are better protected from misidenti-fications than with the simultaneous presentation. 2.6 TOOLS AND METHODS USED BY FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGISTS IN INDIA With the increasing number of crimes, physical evidence left on the crime scene is nil or negligible and thus it becomes relatively difficult for the investigating agencies to gather evidences which will lead them to the perpetrator of the particular crime. Further, although the investigating agency may reach a particular suspect in a crime, it has to be proved in the court of law by the prosecution that the suspect is involved in the crime. For this purpose, the legal system has placed emphasis on oral or documentary evidences, to convict an individual of a particular crime (Puranik, Joseph, Daundkar and Garad, 2009). Recently, there has been a lot of emphasis on newer scientific techniques which are used as an aid to an investigation process. Some of the tools used in India are Polygraphy Test, Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling (BEOSP) and Narco analysis. 35 Assessment of Eyewitness and Their Statements 2.6.3 Narcoanalysis It is psychothereapy conducted while the patient is in sleeplike state induced by barbiturates or other drugs, especially as a means of releasing repressed feelings, thoughts or memories. Its use is restricted to circumstances when there is a compelling immediate need for the subject’s response. This technique is also used in Forensic cases and is also sometimes called the “truth serum”. In forensic setup, narcoanalysis is conducted only when there is a jurisdictional court order for carrying out the test as it is an invasive procedure used for non medical purposes. Various information is referred for conducting narcoanalysis on the subject. Records such as Post Mortem report, F.I.R, Inquest Panchanama, Crime scene photographs, brief summary of the case submitted by the Investigating Officer are gathered and read. i) Pre-test Interview is conducted ii) Informed consent is obtained iii) After all pre-test formalities are completed the team comprising of anesthetist, psychiatrist and forensic psychologist administer the narcoanalysis by injecting a drug (pentothal Sodium) and conducting Narco Interview. In case the subject refuses to give the informed consent, no narcoanaysis is carried out and the same is informed to the jurisdictional court. iv) Post test interview is conducted 2.7 POST EVENT INFORMATION Many factors influence a person’s recall of a brief event and because human memory is assumed to involve both constructive and reconstructive processes, information considered or received by the witness following the event may also contribute to the specifics of what is ultimately recalled. For example, in postevent misinformation studies, participants view a video event, then hear a narrative about it that contains incorrect information about details in the film (e.g., the getaway car was blue rather than green). Later, they are asked to recall details from the original video they viewed. The typical finding is that participants often incorporate information from the narrative by recalling (or recognising) details that are consistent with the misleading information. Going well beyond distortion of minor details, research participants have also constructed complete but false autobiographical events as a result of similar suggestive misinformation techniques. The ease with which such memories may be manipulated or constructed has contributed to the development of an entire new field of false memory research, a field whose topics often overlap with those of eyewitness testimony research. 36 Forensic Psychology: Police and the Law Social scientists and legal practitioners have long recognised that suggestive forensic (or therapeutic) interview practices are a major cause of inaccuracies in eyewitness memory. Indeed, there is an extensive scientific literature demonstrating that exposure to misinformation can lead to false memories for details and even entire events that were never actually experienced. Loftus’s (1979) misinformation paradigm, in particular, has translated traditional verbal-learning research findings (e.g., Keppel & Underwood, 1962) into an ecologically relevant setting, showing that eyewitnesses’ memories are malleable and can be influenced by exposure to misinformation. Loftus’s paradigm (e.g., Lindsay, Allen, Chan, & Dahl, 2004; Loftus, Miller, & Burns, 1978) includes three phases: i) First, subjects witness an event (e.g., by watching a video). ii) Second, they are exposed to a narrative description of the witnessed event that contains misinformation. iii) Third, subjects are tested on their memory for the event. The typical finding is that subjects who have been exposed to misinformation in this way are less likely to recall the correct details than are those who have received no misinformation. Other post-event mental activities such as rehearsal, verbal coding, and image generation can similarly contribute to altered recollections of the event or person. The Wells and Bradfield (1998) research dramatically demonstrated these kinds of changes as do the detrimental effects of both postevent verbal (Schooler and Engstler-Schooler 1990) and conceptual rehearsal of events and people. These kinds of retrospective reconstructions or refraining of events are likely to form the basis of much additional research in the field. 2.8 RELATION BETWEEN ACCURACY AND CONFIDENCE Analyses of jurors decision-making processes have indicated that of all the factors influencing their judgments of credibility of a witness, the confidence expressed by the witness is most influential. When witnesses claim to be absolutely certain of their statements their evidence is given more weight than that from other witnesses who expresses less certainty. Assignment of greater evidential weight to the first than to the second group of witnesses would be reasonable if subjective confidence was predictive of accuracy. Although it is clear that the triers-of-fact do believe there is a strong relationship between accuracy and confidence, the research evidence has been equivocal. Whereas a minority of studies has demonstrated moderate to strong relationships between the two variables, the majority have not. Indeed, the obtained relationship has been generally so low as to provide virtually no predictive value from confidence to accuracy. Witnesses subjective confidence is an estimator variable because it reflects a witness’s characteristics, such as age and gender. Nonetheless, its expression by a witness may be seen also as a system variable because it can be altered by the 37 Assessment of Eyewitness and Their Statements criminal justice system. For example, witnesses may be encouraged by others to assign high confidence to their in-court opinions, often much higher than they provided at the time of the identification. As a result, many researchers have argued that some standardised assessment of confidence should be taken by the investigating officer at the time of a witness’s identification decision (Wells et al. 1998). Therefore confidence appears to be influenced by post identification factors such as repeated questioning, briefings in anticipation of cross-examination, and feedback about the behaviour of other witnesses (Penrod and Cutler, 1995). There is widespread agreement among researchers that the correlation between identification accuracy and confidence in identification judgments is weak. For this reason, many experts caution against heavy reliance on confidence when evaluating identification accuracy (Sporer, Penrod, Read and Cutler, 1995). 2.8.1 Improvement of the Reliability and Accuracy of Witness Statement In a scientific study focus is laid on the reliability and accuracy of the results. Reliability is the consistency of your measurement, or the degree to which an instrument measures the same way each time it is used under the same condition with the same subjects. Accuracy in general, refers to precision and/or exactness. In the fields of science, engineering, industry and statistics, accuracy is the degree of conformity of a measured or calculated quantity to its actual (true) value. But reliability and accuracy in eye witness study in forensic psychology has a different dimension to it because of the following reasons: Cases where the exact truth is known to the investigator are rare. Thus there is no actual data based on which eyewitness account can be compared for accuracy.There are many factors involved which lead to minor or major changes in eyewitness statements after the incidence takes place. Thus the reliability factor in eyewitness assessment is highly prone to doubts. A witness may, for some reason, want to deceive the investigator. In such cases even if the statements are consistent throughout the investigation but they are not accurate. Since eyewitness testimonies are very crucial for legal case investigations there has been a lot researches to facilitate better reliability and accuracy. In India tools and methods like Polygraphy Test, Narco analysis and BEOS are used by Forensic Psychologists. These tools and methods help the investigator to systematically and scientifically assess the eyewitness and their statements. However, in the initial phase of a case investigation the police personnel are assigned the duty of extracting information from the eyewitnesses. It is ironical that although the quality of a witness’s or victim’s report is of paramount importance in solving criminal cases, police investigators often have minimal guidance in developing effective interview techniques to facilitate memory retrieval. A standard interview procedure is carried wherein the eyewitness statements are recorded. A lot of research points out that the Standard Interview procedure lacks in efficiency. The cognitive interview technique (CI) has received considerable 40 Forensic Psychology: Police and the Law 2) How does an eyewitness’s being the victim of the crime or a child affect assessment? 3) Compare advantages and limitation of real life crime case and research simulations of criminal acts as sources of eyewitness assessment study. 4) Write a brief note on misidentification of an innocent person by an eyewitness. 5) What are the procedures and methods used by researchers in assessing eyewitness and their statements? 6) What is polygraphy test? What is the procedure in which it is conducted? 7) What is BEOSP? What is the principle behind it? 8) How does post event information affect Eyewitness memory? 9) Elaborate your understanding on relation between eyewitness confidence and their accuracy. 10. What is Cognitive Interview? 2.11 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES Cutler, B. and Penrod, S. (1995) Mistaken Identity. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge UK. Fisher, R.P. & Geiselman, R.E. (1992). Memory enhancing techniques for investigative interviewing: The cognitive interview. Springfield: Loftus, E.F. (1979). Eyewitness Testimony. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Veeraraghavan, Vimala (2009). Handbook of Forensic Psychology. Select Scientific Publishers.New Delhi. References Penrod, S & Cutler, B. (1995). Witness confidence and witness accuracy: Assessing their forensic relation. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 1(4), 817- 845. Sporer, S. L., Penrod, S, Read, D & Cutler, B. (1995). Choosing, Confidence, and Accuracy: A Meta-Analysis of the Confidence–Accuracy Relation in Eyewitness Identification Studies. Psychological Bulletin. 118(3), 315-327. Puranik, D.A., Joseph, S.K., Daundkar, B.B., Garad, M.V. (2009). Brain Signature profiling in India. It’s status as an aid in investigation and as corroborative evidence – as seen from judgments. Proceedings of XX All India Forensic Science Conference, 815 – 822. Wells, G. L. & Bradfield, A. L. (1998). “Good, you identified the suspect:” Feedback to eyewitnesses distorts their reports of the witnessing experience. Journal of Applied Psychology, in press. Wells GL. 1993. What do we know about eyewitness identification? Am. Psychol. 48, 553–71 41 Assessment of Eyewitness and Their Statements Linsay, R. C. L. & Wells, G. L. (1985). Improving eyewitness identifications from lineups: simultaneous versus sequential lineup presentation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 556 – 64. Keppel, G., & Underwood, B. J. (1962). Proactive inhibition in shortterm retention of single items. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behaviour, 1, 153-161. Lindsay D. S., Allen B. P., Chan J. C. K., Dahl L. C. (2004). Eyewitness suggestibility and source similarity: Intrusions of details from one event into memory reports of another event. Journal of Memory & Language, 50, 96-111. Loftus, E. F., Miller, D. G. & Burns, H. J. (1978). Semantic integration of verbal information into a visual memory. Human Learning and Memory, 4, 19-31. Wells GL, Bradfield AL. 1998. “Good, you identified the suspect:” Feedback to eyewitnesses distorts their reports of the witnessing experience. J. Appl. Psychol. 83:360–76 Schooler JW, Engstler-Schooler TY. 1990. Verbal overshadowing of visual memories: some things are better left unsaid. Cognitive Psychology 22: 36–71. Penrod, S. & Cutler, B. (1995). Witness confidence and witness accuracy: Assessing their forensic relation. Psychology, Public Policy & Law & , 1, 817- 845. Sporer, S., Penrod, S.D., Read, D. & Cutler, B.L. (1995). Gaining confidence in confidence: A new meta-analysis on the confidence-accuracy relationship in eyewitness identification studies. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 315-327. Geiselman, R. E., Fisher, R. P., Firstenberg, I., Hutton, L. A., Sullivan, S. J., Avetissian, I. V, & Prosk, A. L. (1984). Enhancement of eyewitness memory: An empirical evaluation of the Cognitive Interview. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 12, 130-138.