Deck 10: Improving Eyewitness Identification Procedures

Question 1

Describe the Father Pagano case.

Answer 1

no answer

Question 2

Describe the Supreme Court decision in Stovall v.Denno with regard to the use of a showup.

Answer 2

no answer

Question 3

Describe the Steve Titus case.

Answer 3

no answer

Question 4

What suggestions can a forensic psychologist make to the police about how to interview eyewitnesses and crime victims?

Question 5

What aspects of eyewitness identification are forensic psychologists willing to testify about?

Question 6

What are leading questions?

Question 7

Apply the concept of social framework testimony to testimony on eyewitness accuracy.

Question 8

Has the Supreme Court taken a position on the use of lineups by the police? What is it?

Question 9

Distinguish between a lineup and a photo array.

Question 10

Discuss the findings and problems with the 2006 Illinois Pilot Program on SequentialDouble-blind Identification Procedures.

Question 11

How do demand characteristics operate on witnesses while being questioned by the police?

Question 12

Discuss the problems in the use of a showup.

Question 13

What are some procedural errors that police make in questioning eyewitnesses?

Question 14

What are some common errors when police use lineups?

Question 15

Describe the rules suggested by Wells and his colleagues for reducing errors in the use of lineups.

Question 16

Describe the John Demjanjuk case.

Question 17

Are jurors knowledgeable about whether eyewitnesses are accurate?

Question 18

What are the benefits of a cognitive interview?

Question 19

Distinguish between system variables and estimator variables.Which can be controlled by the criminal justice system?

Question 20

Do witnesses and victims make mistakes in identification of perpetrators? How often?

Question 21

What are the two factors that are most likely to lead to a solved case?

A)When police arrived on the scene quickly and when someone confessed to the crime.
B)When police arrived on the scene quickly and when an eyewitness provided a specific piece of information.
C)When the offenders were captured within minutes and when someone confessed to the crime.
D)When the offenders were captured within minutes and when an eyewitness provided a specific piece of information.

Question 22

Which of the following would NOT be recommended in conducting an eyewitness investigation?

A)Interview several witnesses together to corroborate details
B)Carefully construct interview questions upon discovering crime
C)Have interviewers who have been trained in the art of interviewing
D)Take detailed notes of both the questions asked and the answers given

Question 23

Regarding violent and nonviolent events,people

A)are more accurate in reporting violent events.
B)are more accurate in reporting nonviolent events.
C)are extremely accurate in reporting both types of events.
D)are extremely inaccurate in reporting both types of events.

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT characteristic of interviews carried out by police officers?

A)The use of leading,informative questions
B)The use of brief,direct questions
C)The use of little or no assistance in encouraging eyewitnesses' recollections
D)A willingness to let victims answer at length without interruption

Question 25

With regard to Wells' distinction between system variables and estimator variables,which of the following is not a system variable in eyewitnessidentification?

A)Eyewitness interviews
B)Police lineups
C)Suspect's race
D)Showups

Question 26

In Gilbert v.California,1967 and United States v Wade,1967 the court ruled

A)that the use of improper lineup procedures violated a defendant's constitutional rights.
B)that the defendant had a right to a defense attorney during a lineup.
C)that the lineup methods used in both cases was constitutional.
D)that lineups must involve only one eyewitness at a time.

Question 27

Estimator variables

A)are preventable.
B)involve police procedures.
C)are determined before the police respond.
D)are rarely testified on by psychologists.

Question 28

In a recent review of cases of defendants who had been wrongfully convicted,____% included testimony from eyewitnesses who had mademistaken identifications.

A)13
B)26
C)84
D)71

Question 29

What happened in the case involving Father Bernard Pagano?

A)Father Pagano identified a criminal based primarily on his voice, which he had heard during a confession at church.
B)Father Pagano organized a neighborhood search to find the killer of a 10-year-old boy;the killer was a member of his congregation.
C)Father Pagano was sentenced to 25 years in prison for child molestation.His victim positively identified him 10 years after the crime.
D)Father Pagano was identified by victims and prosecuted for armed robbery but charges were dismissed when the true criminal came forward.

Question 30

In the Steve Titus case,which of the following is true?

A)Titus,the sole witness in the case,identified the attacker of his fiancé.
B)Titus was charged with a crime but the prosecution failed because there were no eyewitnesses.
C)An innocent man had previously been convicted of a crime.The real perpetrator,Steve Titus,was found only after an eyewitness identified him.
D)Steve Titus,an innocent man,was convicted based on a faulty lineup.

Question 31

The number of arrests or prosecutions relative to the overall crime rate is also known as the

A)success ratio.
B)clearance rate.
C)sociocriminal balance.
D)adjusted crime index.

Question 32

Which of the following is NOT an error which is almost universally committed by police officers when interviewing witnesses and victims?

A)Asking too many short-answer questions
B)Allowing the witness to speak too much and ramble
C)Using an inappropriate sequence in asking questions
D)Interrupting the witness

Question 33

John Demjanjuk,an accused Nazi war criminal,was

A)released when eyewitness testimony exonerated him.
B)executed in Israel based on the testimony of concentration-camp survivors.
C)convicted but later released based on questionable police procedures.
D)a Jewish concentration-camp survivor who was mistakenly identified as a guard because witnesses remembered him being at the camp.

Question 34

A field study that recorded interviews by British police officers found that ________ questions was leading.

A)1/3
B)1/4
C)1/5
D)1/6

Question 35

A 1975 Rand Corporation study showed that,unless an eyewitness was available and could provide a specific piece of information about the crime,thelikelihood of solving the crime was

A)10%.
B)20%.
C)40%.
D)60%.

Question 36

In 1979,Cathleen Crowell accused Gary Dotson of rape,and he was later convicted.Which of the following is true of this case?

A)Crowell mistakenly identified Dotson as her attacker,based on a flawed police lineup.
B)Dotson was released from prison in 1987 and immediately pardoned when Crowell admitted to lying about the crime.
C)Dotson was wrongfully convicted but not completely exonerated until 1989,when DNA proved his innocence.
D)Despite Crowell's later statement that she lied about the crime,Dotson has not been released because prosecutors believe she is telling the truth.

Question 37

A witness identifies Kathy as the perpetrator of a crime that Kathy did not commit.The witness saw Kathy's picture in a photo lineup of suspects,though,and has mistakenly replaced the face of the actual criminal with Kathy's facewhen remembering the crime.This is an example of

A)the Fisher effect.
B)projective memory.
C)unconscious transference.
D)Holmes' law.

Question 38

Which of the following is NOT an example of unacceptable police procedure in interviewing eyewitnesses?

A)Allowing one eyewitness to overhear the responses of other eyewitnesses.
B)Taking "spotty" notes of witnesses' answers.
C)Only having one person interview the eyewitness.
D)Using investigators who have little training in interviewing.

Question 39

Which of the following is not an estimator variable in eyewitness identification?

A)Emotional state of the witness
B)Surveillance video
C)The amount of violence in the crime
D)The physical state of the witness

Question 40

According to Chapter 10,forensic psychologists should assist police in improving _______variables in eyewitness interviewing because this type ofvariable can lead to preventable errors.

A)system
B)estimator
C)predictor
D)actuarial

Question 41

In U.S.v.Ash (1973),the Supreme Court ruled that

A)photo arrays are unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment.
B)photo arrays must be conducted only when the suspect is unavailable for a lineup.
C)a witness cannot view a photo array after having already seen the suspect in a lineup.
D)the right of the presence of counsel does not extend to photo arrays.

Question 42

Which of the following is an important part of a cognitive interview?

A)Hypnosis
B)Not forming premature conclusions
C)Context recreation
D)Tailoring questions to the individual witness

Question 43

Which of the following would NOT be suggested by Ronald Fisher (1995) as a way to improve the accuracy of information elicited from witnesses?

A)Re-create the original context
B)Make the interview witness-centered,rather than interviewer-centered
C)Be sensitive to temptations to form premature conclusions
D)Use a standardized checklist of questions for witnesses

Question 44

Brigham and Wolfskeil (1983) found that _________were more likely to believe in the accuracy of eyewitnesses than were _________.

A)prosecuting attorneys;defense attorneys
B)defense attorneys;prosecuting attorneys
C)police;laypeople
D)laypeople,police

Question 45

When a witness selects a stimulus person who most resembles,in the witness's memory,the perpetrator of the crime,this effect is known as

A)foil contamination.
B)unconscious transference.
C)relative judgment.
D)state-dependent learning.

Question 46

Jurors' beliefs about eyewitness testimony tend to

A)agree with experts.
B)be misinformed about the confidence-accuracy relationship.
C)overestimate the weapons effect.
D)underestimate the ability of people to remember stranger's faces.

Question 47

Which of the following did the Supreme Court NOT list as something that could increase witness accuracy.

A)the length of time between the crime and identification of the criminal.
B)the confidence of the eyewitness.
C)the interviewing techniques of the police.
D)the attention of the witness during the crime.

Question 48

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of a photo array over a traditional police lineup?

A)Portability
B)The higher degree of realism
C)The control over the behavior of lineup members
D)Lessened anxiety by witnesses

Question 49

An interview procedure that is not recommended to assist in the memory of witnesses because it can create demand characteristics is to

A)interrupt the witness.
B)repeat a question not answered the first time.
C)slow down the rate of questioning.
D)use a cognitive interview.

Question 50

Which of the following possible influences on witness error are psychologists almost unanimous (97%) in viewing as "reliable enough" totestify about?

A)Wording of interview questions
B)Stress
C)Unconscious transference
D)Time effects

Question 51

Wells and Bradfield (1998) showed students a videotape from a store surveillance camera and then later showed the students photographs of somesuspects.What did their study find?

A)Increased confidence was associated with increased accuracy.
B)Witnesses were more accurate when they were shown an increased number of photographs.
C)Feedback from an authority had an undesirable effect on future reports.
D)A time delay can actually improve memory.

Question 52

The concept of delayed discovery may do which of the following?

A)Increase witness accuracy through hypnosis,even after significant time \ has passed
B)Encourage more false reports of child abuse
C)Prove many who have been convicted of crimes innocent
D)Interfere with the collection of physical evidence

Question 53

A showup can be thought of as a special kind of lineup in which

A)the suspect is brought to the witness's residence.
B)the lineup is formed at the crime scene.
C)only the head of the suspect,not his or her body,is shown to the witness.
D)only the suspect is in the lineup.

Question 54

Which of the following is not a criterion often used by judges in determining the admissibility of expert witness testimony?

A)The scientific nature of the work
B)The likelihood it will lead to an acquittal
C)The relevance of the work
D)How widely agreed-upon it is by other experts

Question 55

Exposure to a suspect's photograph has been found to

A)produce fewer identifications of that person as perpetrator of the crime.
B)produce more identifications of that person as perpetrator of the crime.
C)not affect identifications of that person.
D)produce more identifications in simultaneous,but not sequential arrays.

Question 56

What was the final result of the case of Stovall v.Denno (1967)?

A)Stovall's conviction was overturned,based on inaccurate eyewitness testimony.
B)Stovall's conviction was overturned,with the court declaring the eyewitness identification procedure to be prejudicial.
C)Stovall's conviction was upheld,with the court maintaining the identification was not unnecessarily suggestive.
D)Stovall's conviction was upheld,despite a ruling that the procedure was a violation of due process.

Question 57

Which of the following is NOT recommended as a means of increasing the accuracy of police lineups?

A)Have the investigating officer conduct the lineup
B)Make sure the suspect does not stand out in the lineup by being too different
C)Explicitly tell the witness that the perpetrator might be absent from the lineup
D)Use a double-blind procedure to guard against unintentional communication

Question 58

Which of the following is NOT a frequent kind of error in eyewitness identification?

A)Implying that the criminal is definitely one of the stimulus persons
B)Creating no real demand to make a choice
C)Encouraging a looser recognition threshold in the eyewitness
D)Leaking the detective's hunch