The criminal justice system relies heavily on eyewitness identification for investigating and prosecuting crimes in that, it may be the only evidence present for identifying criminals in certain cases (Wells & Olson, 2002). The strong weight given to eye witness identifications is nonetheless a matter of concern as it eye witness identifications have been demonstrated to be flawed, even when witness confidence is high. Experience has shown that the convincing and sincere witness can often be mistaken. Memon (2008) explains where eye-witness testimonies have been greatly unreliable; where Jean Charles de Menezes was shot by police as a result of mistaken identity. According to eye-witnesses he was described as suspicious, jumped over a ticket barrier and was wearing a wearing a bulky jack supposedly concealing a device.
Eyewitness testimony has found to be responsible for more convictions of innocent people then all other factors combined. According to the Innocence Project 75% of all exonerations in America are due to eye witness misidentification. This paper addresses eyewitness testimony and its accuracy and use in the criminal justice system. The evidence in this paper is used to argue that eyewitness testimony is not always accurate but still an important part of the justice system. Eyewitness testimony is heavily relied on in the criminal justice system as it is used to investigate and prosecute crimes.
Case Summary Essay Kaplan University CJ327-01: Crime Scene Photography Prof. Tracy Abstract Photographs, motion pictures, and videotapes are generally admissible in court. Some legal challenges are rare when it comes to scientific grounds. The field of science and the field of photography in relation to the criminal justice system have dramatically evolved over the past one hundred years. Photographic evidence according to Nemeth is admissible based on six standards of relevancy. That is; whenever it proves some material fact in issue, appears to be competent, assists the trier of fact in understanding the cases, corroboration of evidence of oral testimony in both civil and criminal cases, disproves the testimony of a witness, and when is assists a witness in illustrating or explaining their testimony (Nemeth, 2011).
While it can be hard to understand why someone would falsely confess to a crime, psychological research has provided some answers and DNA exonerations have proven that the problem is more widespread than many people think. In approximately 25% of the wrongful convictions overturned with DNA evidence, defendants made false confessions, admissions or statements to law enforcement officials. In some false confession cases, details of the crime are inadvertently communicated to a suspect by police during questioning. Later, when a suspect knows these details, the police take the knowledge as evidence of guilt. Often, threats or promises are made to the suspect off camera and then the camera is turned on for a false confession.
The most common element in wrongful convictions is eyewitness misidentification. Some of the methods used for identification have been scrutinized and are being changed and modified with time. Misidentification not only threatens the innocent but also focuses the investigation on the innocent letting the guilty
Jessica Siguenza Final Paper Police Brutality Police brutality is the abuse of authority by the unjustifiable of excessive force by employees in various aspects of law enforcement while in routine of their official duties. There are only a few statistics on police brutality. A 2006 Department of Justice report, showed that out of 26,556 citizen complaints made in 2002 regarding unnecessary use of police force amongst large U.S. agencies about 2000 resulted to have merit. In 1982, the federal government funded a "Police Services Study," in which over 12,000 randomly chosen citizens were interviewed at three metropolitan regions. The research concluded that 13.6 percent of those surveyed stated to have had a reason to complain about police
Some were later asked to describe the speed of the cars before they smashed into each other, others were asked the same question, but using the term hit instead of smash. In their responses, those questioned using the term smash were more likely to state that they saw broken glass, though that was false (Born, Colleen 1997). Most often, eyewitnesses are unwilling to reconsider their initial understanding once they state facts in a particular way or identify a particular individual as the perpetrator of a crime. This is basically due to memory reconstruction. In a study conducted by Barbara Tversky and Elizabeth Marsh on the vulnerability of human memory to bias, showed that participants recalled a story
To answer this question, many people think that criminal profiling is solely based on race, age, and gender but it becomes much more than that. Criminal profiling involves seven long steps that include the following. First step, evaluating the criminal act itself is crucial. Specific evaluation and comprehension of the crime scene happens next. The police will then evaluate the victim such as background checks, previous crimes, maybe interviews with close relatives or friends.
Housing approximately 500,000 people in jail awaiting trial who cannot bail costs $9 billion a year. Most jail inmates are petty, nonviolent offenders. Twenty years ago most non-violent defendants were released on their own recognizance (trusted to show up at trial). Now most are given bail, and most pay a bail bondsman to afford it. 62% of local jail inmates are awaiting trial.
When should we discard explanations that are intuitively appealing? My real life situation is how criminal insanity defense and how it can be used for someone's act of killing, raping,or any other acts of crime. The insanity plea is used in less than 1% of all US Criminal Justice System criminal cases; 35% of those are murder cases. One fourth are successful. Approximately 70% of these cases were the results of agreements between the prosecution and defense.