Abstract
PurposeTo examine legal professionals’ knowledge of a wide range of factors that affect eyewitness accuracy in China.MethodsA total of 812 participants, including 210 judges, 244 prosecutors, 202 police officers, and 156 defense attorneys, were asked to respond to 12 statements about eyewitness testimony and 3 basic demographic questions (i.e., gender, age, and prior experience).ResultsAlthough the judges and the defense attorneys had a somewhat higher number of correct responses than the other two groups, all groups showed limited knowledge of eyewitness testimony. In addition, the participants’ responses to only four items (i.e., weapon focus, attitude and expectations, child suggestibility, and the impact of stress) were roughly unanimous within the four legal professional groups. Legal professionals’ gender showed no significant correlations with their knowledge of eyewitness testimony. Prior experiences were significantly and negatively correlated with the item on the knowledge of forgetting curve among judges but positively correlated with two items (i.e., attitudes and exposure time) among defense attorneys and with 4 statements (i.e., the knowledge of attitudes and expectations, impact of stress, child witness accuracy, and exposure time) among prosecutors.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that knowledge of the factors that influence eyewitness accuracy must be more effectively communicated to legal professionals in the future.
Highlights
Eyewitness testimony in a trial is often important as a form of evidence in courts
The findings suggest that knowledge of the factors that influence eyewitness accuracy must be more effectively communicated to legal professionals in the future
Many studies have assessed the knowledge of legal professionals, such as judges [10,11,12], prosecutors [3, 13], defense attorneys [13, 14], and police officers [13, 15], about eyewitness testimony. These findings have suggested that the majority of legal professionals were not familiar with the factors that influenced the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
Summary
A total of 812 participants, including 210 judges, 244 prosecutors, 202 police officers, and 156 defense attorneys, were asked to respond to 12 statements about eyewitness testimony and 3 basic demographic questions (i.e., gender, age, and prior experience)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
