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Criminal Psychology

Collecting and using evidence from witnesses and suspects

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 03

Overview

Recall questions on eyewitness testimony and reconstructive memory, leading questions, post-event information, weapon focus, anxiety, own-race bias, identity parades, confidence and accuracy, the cognitive and enhanced cognitive interviews, PEACE, interrogation tactics, false confessions and the polygraph.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Why is memory described as reconstructive, and what does that mean for a witness account?

Evaluation

Explain the weapon focus effect.

Key term

What is eyewitness testimony?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is eyewitness testimony?

    Model answer

    The account given by a person who saw an incident, used as evidence about what happened and who was involved.

  2. 2

    Why is memory described as reconstructive, and what does that mean for a witness account?

    Model answer

    Memory is rebuilt at recall from fragments plus expectations, so a witness account is a reconstruction shaped by their schemas rather than a faithful recording.

  3. 3

    What is a leading question?

    Model answer

    A question whose wording suggests a particular answer to the witness.

  4. 4

    What did the studies on the verb used to describe a collision show about leading questions?

    Model answer

    Witnesses asked how fast cars were going when they smashed gave higher speed estimates than those asked when the cars hit, and were more likely later to report broken glass that was never there.

  5. 5

    What is post-event information, and how does it distort testimony?

    Model answer

    It is information encountered after the event, such as a news report or another witness's account, which becomes incorporated into the memory so the witness cannot separate it from what they saw.

  6. 6

    Explain the weapon focus effect.

    Model answer

    When an offender holds a weapon, the witness's attention is drawn to it, so less attention is given to the face and the description of the offender is poorer.

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APunishment requires deprivation, loss of autonomy and stigma.
BReform requires trust, responsibility and self-respect.
CThe regime that achieves one tends to undermine the other.

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