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Article: Police officers' perceptions of eyewitness performance in forensic investigations.
- Article from:
- The Journal of Social Psychology
- Article date:
- June 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Over the last two decades, psychologists have conducted considerable research into variables that influence eyewitnesses' performances because eyewitnesses have been considered very important to police investigations. If eyewitnesses are unable to remember details of a crime, perpetrators may go unpunished; conversely, if eyewitnesses recall information inaccurately, innocent people may be convicted of crimes. Although the assumption that eyewitnesses are important to police investigations seems reasonable, it is based on the personal experiences of a small number of police officers (Geberth, 1983; Sennewald, 1981) or on anecdotal case studies (Huff, Rattner, & Sagarin, ...