Elizabeth Loftus Essay Example

Elizabeth Loftus Essay For many years eye witness testimony has been a key element of courtroom trials. Whether a person is given a guilty verdict or not can revolve around who the jury believe, and eye witness testimony plays a major part. However many studies have been conducted over the years which suggest a number of ways in which eye witness testimony can be unreliable.Leading researcher Elizabeth Loftus has suggested factors such as, violent crime, leading questions during interviews, and the presence of a weapon during a crime, can all have a marked effect on the reliability of eye witness testimony.Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted an experiment in an attempt to show how leading questions can affect an eye witnesss version of events.The experiment took place in a laboratory with 45 American students used as the sample. The participants were asked to view footage of a car crash. They were later asked to recall events as if they were an eye witness. The students were then asked to fill in a question naire, which had the wording of one question changed. Split onto five groups of nine, one group were asked the question About how fast were the cars going when they hit?, for the other groups the word hit was changed to smashed, collided , contacted, or bumped. The findings were that the average speed suggested when the word smashed was used was 9 mph more than the average estimate of speed than when the word contacted was used.Whilst this does highlight that the way a question is worded can illicit different answers, it is important to note this experiment was conducted in a laboratory, in a set-up situation. Watching footage on TV is not the same as witnessing a real life car crash, so the experiment lacks ecological validity. Also the sample used was all students, they may have been roughly the same age so the sample was not representative of the whole population. The sample also knew they were taking part in an experiment and knew any answers they gave didnt have any repercussio ns for anybody. It is also possible some of the participants may have just been poor judges of speed, so its not possible to ascertain how much their answer was prompted by the vocabulary in the question.In 1979 Loftus looked at how violent crime, in particular crime involving the use of a weapon by the perpetrator can reduce the accuracy of an eye witnesss recall of events. This is known as weapon focus. Loftus tested this effect in a single experiment. Each participant sat alone in a waiting room, and from another room heard a pre- recorded argument. The participants were unaware the experiment had begun. A man entered the room drew attention to himself and left. Each person was then asked to give a description of the man, however one group witnessed the man carrying a pen, for the other group the confederate was holding a knife. The group who observed the situation involving the pen were able to give a much better description of the man than in the case of the knife. It was concl uded that the presence of the weapon was responsible for this. A possibility for this is that a person witnessing a crime which involves a weapon such as a gun or a knife focuses on the weapon as they perceive it to be a threat to themselves and this causes a high level of arousal. When this happens there is an immediate release in the body by the adrenal glands of adrenalin, if the threat is still there after 2 to 3 minutes, as could be the case if in a bank at the time of an armed robbery, the adrenal glands release cortisol, which can have an effect on a persons ability for accurate recall of an event.Research has been conducted which refutes this (Brown and Kulik 1977), which suggests that a high level of arousal can increase a persons ability to recollect an important event with increased accuracy. However it is important to make a distinction between events that can be positive for someones life such as the day your child was born, events that may have been witnessed on televi sion, for example the terrorist attacks on the world trade centers, or being an innocent bystander at the time of an armed robbery.Loftus has been criticised for aspects of her work, particularly for the research being artificial, however it has shown how a persons ability for accurate recall of an event can be influenced.Many other researchers have questioned the reliability of eye witness testimony and identified several factors which can affect a persons ability to accurately recall a crime, notably Brigham ; Malpass (1986) who suggested we make more errors when the suspect is a different race to the witness. They concluded that we are better at being able to recognise our own race.Another explanation for the inaccuracy of recall is that if our memory of an event is sketchy we have a tendency to use our schemas and stereotypes to fill in the gaps. This is known as reconstructive memory, we reconstruct events by combining parts of the event that is real with our schemas which are stored in long term memory. One of the first to investigate the accuracy of memory was psychologist Frederic Bartlett (1932). He asked a subject to read a story entitled War of the ghosts an old legend about an Indian hunter. The person then had to tell the story to another subject who had not heard it before, the second person then told it to another person, this carried on until ten people had heard it. Bartlett found that by the end, whilst a few basic elements of the story remained, many new bits were added as each person along the way in order to make the story more complete added new parts. This additional information came from each persons knowledge from how they see the world.The findings from the all the research shows how problematic dealing with eyewitness testimony can be, for both the police who interview witnesses and for the courtroom where the testimonies of witnesses have a big impact. An obvious implication for the courts is dealing with suspects where eyewitness t estimony is the main source of evidence.Throughout history it is possible to find hundreds of examples where wrongful convictions were the result of faulty eyewitness testimony. This has a profound effect on the life of an individual who suffers a miscarriage of justice, and also that persons family. In severe cases it has cost some people their lives in countries where capital punishment is still used. It has implications for the authorities who over the years have had to pay very large sums of money to people who have spent a long time in prison even though they were innocent. Also there are huge costs involved in trying to catch offenders and imprison them, the police operations, and also the cost of taking people to court, and in every case of wrongful conviction, it means the original perpetrator of the crime is still at large and able to perhaps commit further crime.In order to eradicate possible miscarriages of justice law enforcement agencies are using techniques to make a w itnesss interview more accurate. Standard police interviewing in the past has used closed questioning, and excessive interruption. The Home office acted upon psychological research (Geiselman et al 1984) and implemented changes to the way police interviews are conducted. The new technique is known as the cognitive interview. This aims to give the witness the feeling of greater control in the interview.Interviewees are first asked to recreate the context of the crime, and then the witness is asked to talk of anything they remember in free recall, regardless of whether they perceive the information to be important or not. It is hoped that in cases where there are multiple witnesses, each witness will be able to give different details, and the police can piece together all the fragmented details to arrive with a clearer picture of events. The eyewitness is also asked to talk about the event in a different order or reverse order, and try to recreate the situation from different perspect ives. This all helps to retrieve the event without the possibility of leading questions.Fisher et al (1987) introduced new elements to the cognitive interview, and devised the enhanced cognitive interview. The basic framework of the original technique was kept with the introduction of some new elements. The cognitive interview was found (Geiselman et al 1985) to produce a greater degree of accuracy than the previously used standard police interview. Research has been conducted (Fisher, Geiselman and Amador 1990) which shown the enhanced cognitive interview produced better results than the basic model, especially when interviewers had been trained in the methods.The use of identity parades to pick out possible suspects has often proved crucial in the courts arriving at a guilty verdict. However methods used have also been questioned. Traditionally a victim or other eyewitness will look along a line of people who should have roughly the same characteristics and asked to see if they ca n see the perpetrator of a crime. There are potentially some problems with this methodology.One problem is identity parades are often conducted a while after the crime was been committed, and a persons recollection of events can decay over a period of time, as well as this, faced with the pressure of feeling like they have to pick someone, may lead to picking out someone they are not entirely sure committed an offence. If it is the victim asked to identify a suspect, they could be in high state of emotional arousal. They could have the stress of coming close to a person who perhaps assaulted them, also there could be anger involved, and they may pick anybody on the basis they want someone prosecuted for what happened to them.Identity parades could be perhaps made more reliable by introducing new methods. One such method could be to introduce the line up sequentially, this may ease some of the pressure involved. Also the officer conducting the parade shouldnt be aware if the main sus pect is present, this could stop anybody perhaps being led to one member of the line up. It could also be mentioned to the person who is trying to identify the perpetrator that the suspect may not be in the line up, this would stop the person feeling like they have to pick someone.It is clear from all the research there is a big margin for error in eyewitness testimony. Whilst jurors are still highly influenced by a confident eyewitness, more cases are able to be solved with more scientific methods such as DNA. However all parts of the justice system should be trying to eliminate potential problems with the testimony of an eyewitness. Perhaps cases should not go to court when the main evidence provided is eyewitness testimony.

homeland security and border patrol Essays

homeland security and border patrol Essays homeland security and border patrol Essay homeland security and border patrol Essay Homeland security and border patrol Homeland security is one of the main departments that keeps the United States safe. Homeland security locks down the United States and keeps illegals from entering and monitors that the U. S does not go under attack. During the making of the department of homeland security the U. S Border Patrol merged into a new agency called US customs and Border protection known as CBP. The old tradition of border patrol was always known for detecting and preventing the entry of illegal aliens in addition to the smuggling of illegal contraband into the county, but a new high riority mission came into lay when the terrorist tried to enter their weapons into the United States. Keeping the boarders of the U. S safe is an extremely dangerous Job. The duties of duties border patrol men include to be alert 24 hours seven days a week. Border patrols missions take place on horseback, land, sea, and in the air. Over the years border patrols mission has increased it not only operates within the interior of the United States but also now monitors the roads and even airports where illegal aliens concentrate. Since border patrol takes so much concentration dditional powers have been added to help U. S officials protect its borders. From the time before the constitution was even written the function of United States Border Patrol was an essential element to our countrys security. It was the day of July 4th 1776 that out country became independent from England, and the countrys security was born. Back in 1904 when Teddy Roosevelt was president of the United States the mounted inspectors were assigned by the commissioner general of immigration to patrol the southern boarders. At the time only 75 mounted inspectors were on duty o guard all the American borders. The mounted inspectors were given no supervision or orders which forever changed when the Poncho Vila and Prohibition took place. The Poncho Villa was a civil war that raged in Mexico between 1910 and 1920 which averred U. S army troops to encamp along the southwest borders when there was rumors of raiders coming into the country from Mexico. The attack took place in Columbus NM when peasants entered looking for food, in the end only 18 Americans were killed along with an unborn child. Todays border patrol has expanded tremendously with over 11,000 agents on the ine of duty. More than 9,500 agents are stationed along the United States southern boarder because, it is noted that 99 percent of all illegally entering citizens are citizens of Mexico. While it is important to stay on high alert during the day the U. S Mexican border is the most dangerous at night. Most illegal aliens cross the border at night, and murders are perpetrated at night. The triple barrier system is where agents have the most trouble due to the fact they can become trapped in between the barriers making it easier for attackers to make it over the fence. The United States government nas tunded a program that increases security which includes U border patrol agents. U. S border patrol agents work alone, and depend on their own instincts along with the support of new technology including cameras to protect them from danger. Camera systems are implemented with zero time delay systems in between images and each camera uses data link with the use of commercial delivery trucks to scan anything that passes through the border. Camera use is one on the main key elements to successful border patrol which are grouped into five categories. These five categories Include daylight cameras, low light cameras, IR night vision cameras, FLIR cameras, and Range Gated cameras. Daylight cameras offer reasonable resolution, but cannot see through fog, rain or snow and usually see the same as a human eye. Low light cameras are similar to daylight cameras except they can provide an image with Just moon light. IR night cameras are cameras that have a light source that the human eye cannot see. FLIR cameras use infer red sources that monitor heat that spots humans due to body heat and heated objects such as bombs. These cameras are used at night to spot people in cars or people walking without ones knowing there getting watched. Range Gated cameras reflect light beams off of objects which reflect beams of light back to the camera sending back and image of the object. All these cameras listed play a big role successful border protection. Along with Border Patrol Homeland Security was put into action full force after 9/1 1 . The Department of Homeland Security got stronger and the U. S Customs and Border protection was fully mobilized in 36 hours after the attack. Both of their nterprises evolved to better defend against intruders and terrorists attacks. Both systems started working directly with law enforcement agencies, state and local leaders, community based organization, private sectors, and international partners. DHS (Homeland Security) focused on getting resources from Washington DC into the hands of state and local enforcements to help them identify threats. State and law enforcement agencies are usually the first ones in position to notice any signs of planned attacks. Homeland security informs police and front line with the nderstanding the behaviors or unmoral situations, and what to look for in terrorist activity. Another enterprise through homeland security is the private sector outreach which is an integral component through the engagement of protecting the United States. DHS works closely with international partners to have multiple organizations and global business to strengthen the security of the U. S similar to having eyes and ears all around the world. Homeland Security has enhanced security not only in airports but by working with foreign governments administrating global supply chains across the country. In closing they turn to the public that play a key role to strengthen the enterprise and to raise public awareness indicators about terrorism and crime which leads to the motto if you see something say something. References POI, International Association of Counterterrorism Security Prof. Journal of Counterterrorism Homeland Security International (2005- present ). Journal. Policy, California University of Pennsylvania Institue for law Public. Homelsand Security Review ( present). Journal. University, Marian. Journal ot homeland Security Education (2012- present). Journal .