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Preventing miscarriages of justice; can we believe our eyes?

May 26, 1999

REF: 99/52
13 APRIL 1999

Psychology lecturer Dr Amina Memon has been awarded a large grant from the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) to continue her ground-breaking studies into the effectiveness of using eyewitness testimony in criminal justice.

Despite the importance of eyewitness testimony, research shows that eyewitnesses can often be mistaken. Although much is known about the conditions under which child and young adult witnesses are likely to be accurate or inaccurate, understanding of the performance of elderly eyewitnesses lags far behind.

'With improved healthcare and social conditions, the population is ageing, so we are going to see elderly witnesses playing a greater part in investigations,' explains Dr Memon. 'Although they are less likely to be victims of crime than young adults, they are as a group the most fearful of crime.'

The ESRC project will focus on the effects of social factors on identification of subjects. For example, how criminal stereotypes (introduced prior to seeing a crime) may bias recollection and line-up choices.

The study links with another on-going international project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which arose out of a concern about increased false identification rates among elderly witnesses in laboratory simulations of eyewitness events. In preliminary studies involving live events and videotaped events ranging from violent crimes to quiet conversations, Dr Memon observed a higher false identification rate among the elderly witnesses than among the young.

'The NSF project will develop procedures for studying age differences in memory functioning, and identify predictors of performance in identification tasks,' says Dr Memon. 'Why are some eyewitnesses more likely to pick a person from a line-up than others, and how is it possible that an eyewitness may misidentify an innocent bystander who was present at the scene of the crime?

'The approach used in the NSF project is particularly innovative, as a number of neuropsychological tests and individual difference measures will be used to predict deficits in face recognition and eyewitness identification.'

Another of Dr Memon's key studies aims to look at the effects of verbalisation (describing a face) on identification of a face from a photo line-up. There is some evidence to suggest that verbally mediated processes may interfere with visually driven ones.

Dr Memon is seeking senior citizens (aged 60-80) to participate in her studies. Volunteers will be paid for their time. Please contact her at the University of Southampton, tel. 01703 594733 if interested.

Southampton, University of

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