Psychological science on eyewitness identification and its impact on police practices and policies.

Abstract

The development of forensic DNA testing has led to the discovery of hundreds of cases of mistaken eyewitness identification in which innocent people were convicted. Although these discoveries of wrongful convictions from mistaken identification based on DNA testing have been a surprise and shock to the legal system and the public, psychological scientists have been less surprised. This is because psychological scientists were "blowing the whistle" on the eyewitness identification problem for decades prior to forensic DNA testing. Today, most law enforcement agencies in the United States have adopted reformed policies and procedures on eyewitness identification that are based on research by experimental social and cognitive psychologists. This article describes core aspects of this research and how the research has managed to have this impact on the U.S. legal system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).