Eyewitness Identification: General Acceptance in the Scientific Community

This entry focuses on the degree to which experts and others are persuaded that each of a number of factors influences the accuracy of eyewitness identifications. Supreme Court cases, among them United States v. Amaral (1973) and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993), have opened avenues of research addressing how the influence of various factors on the judgments of eyewitnesses is perceived by different parties in the legal system. Reflecting their familiarity with the literature, experts substantially agree on the extent to which many variables influence identifications. Research indicates that jurors do not agree with the experts on many of these influencing factors. The use of legal processes that will help jurors make better decisions in cases that involve eyewitness identifications, such as having experts ...

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