Who can judge the accuracy of eyewitness statements? A comparison of professionals and lay‐persons

Abstract

AbstractResearch suggests that people have difficulty estimating eyewitness accuracy. It is not known whether groups with professional experience of judging eyewitness memory are better at making such judgements than lay‐persons. In the current study, police detectives, judges and lay‐persons judged accuracy of responses to cued recall questions from ethnic in‐ and out‐group witnesses who genuinely tried to remember a crime. Responses were presented in videotape or as transcripts. Detectives outperformed the other groups in discrimination accuracy, and participants performed better when statements were presented in transcribed than in videotaped format. Judges used a liberal response criterion overall, whereas detectives and lay‐persons were more liberal when judging out‐group than in‐group witnesses. Findings indicate that there are observable cues to witnesses' accuracy, that specific professional groups have more knowledge of these cues than others, and that judgements of accuracy based on transcripts rather than live testimony would increase quality of legal decisions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.