Eyewitness identification: Victims versus bystanders
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The study was conducted to analyze the differences in eyewitness identification between the role of the witness (bystander, victim, involved victim) using mock-crime videos. There were 828 (6 excluded) subjects between the ages of 18 and 54 (M = 25.8). The participants watched 5 videos of staged theft from either the bystander or the victim perspective. After each video they had to identify the suspect(s) (one or two) seen in the video and describe what they saw. In the involved victim test group there was the addition of instructed involvement. The results showed that bystanders were less accurate in their identifications than victims, however involved victims were not different from either group. Line-up type (simultaneous vs sequential) did not have an effect on identification accuracy, however there was an interaction with the number of perpetrators presented in the video. The subjects in the one perpetrator condition were more accurate than the subjects in the two perpetrator condition. In addition, there were no differences in the confidence-accuracy relationship between different roles of the witness, however for choosers higher confidence was related to higher accuracy. Finally, instructed involvement affected the use of first person form in the descriptions of the event. It was concluded that instructed involvement is beneficial for the descriptions, however further research is required to better understand if and how involvement influences eyewitness identification. Future research should also focus more on how to create involvement in laboratory situations.
Keywords
bystanders, eyewitness identification, accuracy, descriptions of events, pealtnägijad, kahtlusaluste tuvastamine, kindlushinnang, olukorra kirjeldused