The role of suspect development practices in eyewitness identification accuracy and racial disparities in wrongful conviction

IF 7.2 1区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Social Issues and Policy Review Pub Date : 2023-11-29 DOI:10.1111/sipr.12102

M. B. Kovera

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Abstract

This article reviews the three previously studied categories of variables that are related to eyewitness identification accuracy: estimator (characteristics of the witnessing conditions), system (characteristics of the identification procedure that are under the control of the criminal legal system), and reflector (variables that reflect the likely accuracy of a witness). Although eyewitness scholars frequently turn to these variables and models of memory to explain why eyewitnesses make mistakes, none of these variables provides a reasonable explanation for the large racial disparities in wrongful convictions based on mistaken identifications, yet problematic policing practices might. The policies and practices guiding police efforts to develop suspects as well as the decisions of officers to place a suspect at risk of misidentification determine the base‐rate of innocent suspects that appear in identification procedures. Current police practices—from developing suspects based on hunches, through facial recognition technology, or by pressuring reluctant witnesses to make identifications—increase the likelihood that innocent suspects will be placed in lineups. An increase in lineups with innocent suspects increases the ratio of mistaken to correct identifications without changes in witness performance. Requirements for evidence‐based suspicion, video recording identification procedures, and prohibiting coercive interviewing techniques with reluctant witnesses are recommended for reducing the effect of unreliable suspect development methods on eyewitness evidence.

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嫌疑人培养实践在目击证人指认准确性和误判中的种族差异中的作用

本文回顾了之前研究过的与目击证人指认准确性相关的三类变量：估计变量（目击条件的特征）、系统变量（由刑事法律系统控制的指认程序的特征）和反映变量（反映证人可能的准确性的变量）。尽管目击证人学者经常求助于这些变量和记忆模型来解释目击证人为何会犯错，但这些变量都无法合理解释因错误指认而被错误定罪的巨大种族差异，而有问题的警务实践却可以。指导警方努力培养嫌疑人的政策和做法，以及警官将嫌疑人置于错误指认风险中的决定，决定了指认程序中出现的无辜嫌疑人的基数。目前警方的做法--从根据直觉、通过面部识别技术或迫使不愿指认的证人指认嫌疑人--增加了无辜嫌疑人被列入列队的可能性。在证人表现不发生变化的情况下，增加无辜嫌疑人的列队指认会增加错误指认与正确指认的比例。为减少不可靠的嫌疑人培养方法对目击证人证据的影响，建议要求以证据为基础进行怀疑，对指认程序进行录像，并禁止对不情愿的证人采用胁迫性面谈技巧。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Issues and Policy Review Multiple-

CiteScore

22.20

自引率

1.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： The mission of Social Issues and Policy Review (SIPR) is to provide state of the art and timely theoretical and empirical reviews of topics and programs of research that are directly relevant to understanding and addressing social issues and public policy.Papers will be accessible and relevant to a broad audience and will normally be based on a program of research. Works in SIPR will represent perspectives directly relevant to the psychological study of social issues and public policy. Contributions are expected to be review papers that present a strong scholarly foundation and consider how research and theory can inform social issues and policy or articulate the implication of social issues and public policy for theory and research.