Eyewitness Testimony Research Articles

Colonial Recognition? The Appropriation of Dutch Land and Population Registers as Legal Documents in Eighteenth-Century Sri Lanka

Abstract This paper considers the utilisation, appropriation, and renegotiation of colonial knowledge in the form of land and population registers by local litigants in eighteenth-century Dutch colonial Sri Lanka. Using a database compiled from thirty-three civil court cases held before the Landraad rural council of Colombo, I highlight how Lankan litigants frequently used the colonial thombo registers as evidence to have their property recognised. Moreover, I show that these registers were not just utilised but also altered through this process, particularly through the promotion of alternative knowledge in the form of local witness testimonies and ola palm leaf documents during court cases. I subsequently argue that we should reconsider how we view colonial knowledge. Rather than a static, top-down view from a foreign bureaucracy on a colonised society, this knowledge could be appropriated and even altered through the acts of local agents, in turn changing what was known by the colonial state and thus creating a “looping effect” of knowledge production.

The Challenge of a Ghoib Divorce Lawsuit: An Analysis of a Court Decision and Legal Implications in Indonesia

This research aimed to analyze the legal basis and considerations of judges in deciding ghoib divorce cases and their legal consequences for the parties involved. This study combines normative and empirical research methods. Subsequently, the collected data were analyzed qualitatively to describe the problem and address the research purposes. The results showed that in deciding ghoib divorce cases, the Panel of Judges considered various aspects balanced, including the reasons for divorce given by the plaintiff and witness testimony. The judge made the appropriate decision by verstek, granting the ghoib divorce lawsuit and imposing talaq one ba’in sughra. The legal consequences of ghoib divorce refer to Article 119 of the Compilation of Islamic Law, which regulates talaq ba’in sughra, while Law Number 1 of 1974 and the Civil Code only regulate the legal consequences of divorce in general. Therefore, it is recommended that judges consistently adhere to the principles of justice and caution when handling ghoib divorce cases. Married couples must realize that disappearing without a trace is not a wise solution and will only complicate problem-solving. Divorce should be pursued as a last resort after all efforts to maintain the household have failed. Furthermore, the government needs to create more transparent and comprehensive rules and guidelines regarding the ghoib divorce trial process in Religious Courts to avoid legal uncertainty and ensure the protection of all parties’ rights.

Eyewitness memory for person, object and action information is mediated by interview environment and the presence or absence of rapport

Purpose Obtaining accurate and reliable information from witnesses and victims of crime is essential for guiding criminal investigations and for the successful prosecution of offenders and beyond. Here, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of prosocial rapport behaviours and retrieval environment on mock eyewitness memory with an emphasis on the qualitative nature of information recalled in terms of persons, actions, objects and surroundings. Design/methodology/approach One hundred participants from the general population took part in mock witness research using a 2 (Environment: face-to-face; virtual) × 2 (Rapport: present; absent) design. Participants individually viewed an event depicting a fight in a bar and were then interviewed 48 h later according to condition. Findings Rapport and environment variously emerged as impactful, resulting in significant improvements in correct recall of persons, actions and object information when rapport was present and in virtual environments (VEs) when communicating via avatars. In many instances, the benefits of rapport and environment were additive, but not always. Surroundings information remained consistent across all conditions. Erroneous recall was extremely susceptible to inflation in face-to-face interviews when rapport was absent, in some instances increasing by over 100%. However, virtual interview spaces appeared to dilute the negative effects on retrieval when rapport was absent. Research limitations/implications This study concurs with others who have argued that comfortable witnesses are “better” witnesses; however, understanding what “comfort” looks and feels like remains a challenge. Practical implications The results, alongside the findings of others, have implications for applied and social cognition and reveal avenues for future research centred on widening access to justice and professional interview training. Originality/value This study reveals that prosocial rapport behaviours and VEs significantly enhance the accuracy of eyewitness recall. The findings suggest that virtual interviews can mitigate errors in the absence of rapport, offering valuable insights for criminal investigators and legal professionals. This research is crucial for improving witness interviewing techniques, thereby aiding in the accurate prosecution of offenders and broadening access to justice. The paper is valuable for criminal investigators, legal professionals, forensic psychologists and researchers focused on improving the reliability of eyewitness testimonies and interview methodologies.

Eyewitness Testimony – How Reliable is It?

This paper examines the intricacies associated with eyewitness testimony in legal settings, emphasizing its crucial role as evidence while also addressing its fundamental limitations. An eyewitness is described as an individual who witnesses an event firsthand, and their description can greatly influence the court's decisions. Nevertheless, factors such as stress, racial bias, focus on firearms, and memory lapses can compromise the accuracy of these accounts. The article analyses the legal framework established by the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, which pertains to the competency of witnesses and the reliability of their testimonies. An analysis of the prominent wrongful conviction case of Ronald Cotton, highlights the fallibility of human memory. Furthermore, a review of pertinent psychological studies indicates that eyewitness memory is reconstructive and susceptible to inaccuracies. The necessity for corroborative evidence, expert opinions, and enhanced identification processes is highlighted as a means to improve the reliability of eyewitness testimonies and reduce wrongful convictions, thereby upholding the integrity of the trial process. In summary, this study advocates for a thorough reassessment of eyewitness testimony within a wider legal context to ensure justice.

The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony

The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony

When a Battered Victim Kills Their Abuser: The Impact of Child and Expert Testimony on Mock Jurors' Decision-Making.

The present study investigated the effects of child and expert witness testimony on mock jurors' decision-making and perceptions of a case in which a female defendant claimed self-defense as the reason for killing her husband during a domestic dispute. A 3 (expert witness: Battered Woman Syndrome [BWS] vs. Social Agency [SA] vs. No Expert) × 3 (child witness: Age 5 vs. Age 8 vs. no child) between-subject design was used to examine the effects of two different forms of expert testimony and their interaction with the presence of a child witness. Jury-eligible participants (N = 370) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and a Psychology Undergraduate Student Pool. The mock jurors who were exposed to the BWS expert perceived the defendant as more guilty when an 8-year-old testified compared to when no child testified at all. Furthermore, when the jurors were exposed to the BWS expert, they imposed a harsher sentence on the defendant when an 8-year-old child testified compared to a 5-year-old child or no child testifying. Although the jurors perceived the defendant in the BWS condition as more fearful compared to no expert and the SA condition, this knowledge did not seem to translate into a lighter verdict or sentencing decision. This study aims to provide guidelines for future researchers and legal professionals considering the issue of expert testimony and child witnesses in intimate partner homicides.

Forensic Radiology and the Testimony of Shadows

This article examines how radiological images became accepted by courts as visual evidence of death in the 20th century. Initially conceived as a speciality of photography, X-rays confounded courts, eliciting a range of judicial responses, from outright refusal to consider the images as any kind of evidence, to mocking them as cheap parlour tricks for an unwitting public, to recognising them as more reliable than the testimony of the expert witness. The article contends that courts moved towards recognising X-rays as proof of death only by both affirming forensic radiology's promise of ‘mechanical objectivity’ while acknowledging its reliance on the fallibility of ‘human subjectivity’. We suggest that this history has broader implications in socio-legal studies for comprehending how the invention of novel optical techniques continues to problematise legal epistemologies of death in the 21st century.

The Pragmatic Impact of Grammatical Structures in Courtroom Interpretation and Translation

Courtroom interpretation and translation require a nuanced understanding of not only vocabulary but also the pragmatic impact of grammatical structures. This paper examines the pragmatic impact of grammatical structures on interpretations in the Kisii Law Courts. Using data collected from actual proceedings, the paper analyzes how seemingly minor grammatical differences can have significant consequences for the accuracy and fairness of the legal process. By applying Mey's (2001) Pragmatic Act Theory (PAT), we analyze how modal verbs, passive voice and nominalisation function within the context of the courtroom, influencing the interpretation of witness testimonies, judge's instructions, and lawyer's arguments. Specifically, we explore the use of passive voice within the context of PAT, analyzing how these choices interact with the social context and speaker intention. We will also examine the pragmatic effects of passivisation on agency, responsibility, and the focus of witness testimony, examining how they shape the understanding of events and culpability. It is crucial for court interpreters and translators to accurately convey the intended meaning and effects of pragmatic acts in court proceedings. Keywords: Pragmatic Act Theory, court interpretation and translation, passive voice, nominalisation, modal verbs

Mock Juror Perceptions of Eyewitness Reports Given by Children with Intellectual Disabilities.

Previous research suggests that an eyewitness credibility bias can arise when mock jurors are informed of a child's disability diagnosis. The aim of the present study was to examine mock jurors' lie-detection accuracy and credibility perceptions when assessing eyewitness testimonies provided by children diagnosed with an intellectual disability. Adult mock jurors (N = 217; half informed of the child's disability status) read four transcriptions from interviews with children (ages 10 to 15) diagnosed with an intellectual disability before evaluating the credibility and truthfulness of each eyewitness report. The mock jurors' lie-detection accuracy of the eyewitness reports produced by children with an intellectual disability (55.76%) was found to be similar to prior lie-detection research involving typically developing populations. Furthermore, there were no differences in the lie-detection accuracy and credibility ratings between mock-jurors who were informed of the child's disability when compared to those who were not informed. Although mock jurors perceived the children's testimony to have low credibility, they seemed reluctant to consider many of these testimonies to be false. The current findings also suggest that the disclosure of a disability may not independently cause worsened perceptions of child eyewitnesses.

Natural history of autologous sperm cryostorage.

What is the natural history of elective autologous sperm cryostorage prior to gonadotoxic treatment? We estimate large sample median times to transfer for use, to the man's death or to discard of sperm, and their determinants, as the key operational outcomes of sperm cryostorage. No large sample studies of the natural history of sperm cryostorage prior to gonadotoxic treatment are reported. This observational single-centre study covered 45 years of outcomes with a survival analysis for sperm cryostorage prior to scheduled gonadotoxic treatment, and its determinants. This study included 3923 men (mean age 30 years) who sought sperm cryostorage for a wide range of cancers and other diseases requiring gonadotoxic treatments. The median time to transfer for use (n = 371 men 9%) was 2.4 years (quartiles 1.0, 6.0), the median time to death (n = 553 men, 14%) was 1.7 (0.9, 3.3) years, and the median time to discard (n = 1807 men, 46%) was 7.7 (1.7, 11.1) years. In multivariate Cox model regression, the underlying disease, number of storage visits and follow-up visits, and whether sperm were seen at follow-up visits were consistent predictors of times to outcomes. This study did not investigate sperm cryostorage for reasons other than gonadotoxic treatment, nor the fertilization outcomes of the cryostored sperm. These data provide estimates of the key operational factors for sperm cryostorage programs, prior to potentially sterilizing gonadotoxic treatments, and free from financial or insurance restrictions. There was no specific funding for this study. D.J.H. has provided expert witness testimony to antidoping and professional standards tribunals and is supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant. The other authors have no disclosures. N/A.

Punched Holes: Piano Rolls and the Visual Representation of Sound in White-Smith v. Apollo (1908)

Abstract In its ruling on White-Smith v. Apollo (1908), the Supreme Court declared that the punched holes of a player piano roll did not constitute a form of writing, and thus fell outside the purview of copyright statutes. Because the decision was superseded by the Copyright Act of 1909, which extended copyright coverage to piano rolls and sound recordings, commentators have relegated White-Smith v. Apollo to the status of legal footnote. The case, however, deserves closer attention. It reveals much about the fault lines between the auditory experience of music and its visual representation at the beginning of the era of recorded sound. Witness testimony is notable for its disquisitions on the history of musical notation, exegeses of recently patented notation systems, and philosophical ruminations on the nature of a musical work in relationship to its visual representation and sonic instantiation. Trial proceedings show how the perforations of a piano roll, which were more evocative of traditional musical notation than soundwaves etched on a phonograph cylinder or disc, destabilized the mundanity of reading music. Moreover, this instability suggests an explanation for why the piano rolls figuring in the case featured the music of Adam Geibel. The composer was blind, and in a lawsuit about the textuality of music, his disability served to contrast musical sights and sounds. Moreover, White-Smith v. Apollo furnishes a means of bringing the player piano out of the shadow of the phonograph, giving it a place in the “separation of the senses” that media scholars identify with modernity.

The Impact of Rape Myth Education on Jury Decision-Making: A Systematic Review.

A systematic review of research exploring the impact of providing rape myth countering information to mock-jurors was conducted. The primary aim of the review was to inform the development of an educational intervention for jurors to reduce potential bias in their decision-making based on belief in prevalent rape myths. In total, the following 12 databases were searched: British Education Index, CINAHL, Child Development and Adolescent Studies, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Educational Administration Abstracts, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycArticles, PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Social Care Online. The databases were filtered to return peer-reviewed publications, written in English, and published between 1980 and 2023. The search returned 6,119 potential articles. After duplicates were removed, the 3,202 remaining publications were screened. Only studies that presented rape myth countering information to participants within a mock-juror paradigm were included. Studies that did not compare an information condition to a no-information control condition were excluded, as were those which concerned male rape myths, given the focus on female rape myth beliefs in this review. Eight studies were reviewed and were critically appraised according to validity criteria utilized by Dinos et al. Some evidence emerged to suggest that the provision of judicial directions, expert witness testimony, and complainant statements regarding rape myths can impact upon jury decision-making although the findings were mixed overall. Study limitations regarding internal and external validity were frequently present. Recommendations regarding future research questions and methods are advanced, including those that can inform the development of an effective intervention for jurors.

Positive and negative touch differentially modulate metacognitive memory judgements for emotional stimuli.

Touch plays a crucial role in providing humans with information from the external environment and can be perceived by humans as positively or negatively valenced. It is well documented that touch can differentially influence social functions, but very little is known about how touch can modulate (meta)cognition. Utilizing a within-subject design, participants were exposed to (a) positive, (b) negative, and (c) no touch, alongside encoding of emotionally valenced (positive and negative) images. After a 20-minute delay, participants completed a Yes/No recognition task to investigate how touch influenced memory-related decision components (e.g. criterion, confidence). Results showed that, compared to the control condition, both positive and negative touch were associated with overall lower confidence ratings, a less liberal response bias and slower response times. Interestingly, for correct recognitions, only negative touch (vs. no touch) led to inappropriately lower confidence and slower response times while both confidence and response time remained unaltered in positive touch. Our findings provide the first evidence that positive and negative touch differentially interact with metacognitive memory-related decisions. Altered metacognitive judgements after being touched could have significant consequences in applied settings, such as situations of eyewitness testimony.

Time as a Category in Survivors' Reports About Child Sexual Abuse: An Explorative Approach to Lifetime Abuse.

Since the 1990s, cases of serious violence and abuse, particularly sexual abuse in educational and social institutions of the Catholic Church, have been reported in numerous countries, including Ireland, the United States, and Australia. In many countries, commissions have been set up to investigate the widespread cases of abuse that could not be prosecuted under criminal law. The testimonies of survivors and other witnesses are used by the commissions of inquiry in their work. Since 2016 the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Germany has collected more than 2,500 reports from survivors of child sexual abuse. Forty-four testimonies were analyzed in a study seeking to understand more about lifetime abuse. In an explorative analysis, aspects of time as a key category in the reports were identified using the structured content analysis method. The results highlight the importance of time in the reports and during all phases of the survivors' lives. Overall, four themes are relevant: (a) the identification of turning points, (b) time to make sense of what happened, (c) the practice of waiting, and (d) time-bound experiences of testifying.

Machine Learning Predicts Accuracy in Eyewitnesses’ Voices

AbstractAn important task in criminal justice is to evaluate the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. In this study, we examined if machine learning could be used to detect accuracy. Specifically, we examined if support vector machines (SVMs) could accurately classify testimony statements as correct or incorrect based purely on the nonverbal aspects of the voice. We analyzed 3,337 statements (76.61% accurate) from 51 eyewitness testimonies along 94 acoustic variables. We also examined the relative importance of each of the acoustic variables, using Lasso regression. Results showed that the machine learning algorithms were able to predict accuracy between 20 and 40% above chance level (AUC = 0.50). The most important predictors included acoustic variables related to the amplitude (loudness) of speech and the duration of pauses, with higher amplitude predicting correct recall and longer pauses predicting incorrect recall. Taken together, we find that machine learning methods are capable of predicting whether eyewitness testimonies are correct or incorrect with above-chance accuracy and comparable to human performance, but without detrimental human biases. This offers a proof-of-concept for machine learning in evaluations of eyewitness accuracy, and opens up new avenues of research that we hope might improve social justice.

Application of Criminal Sanctions for Perpetrators of Tax Crimes (Case Study of Case Decision Number: 213/Pid.Sus/2021/PN.Jkt.Brt)

This study aims to find out and describe the mechanism for resolving the application of sanctions for tax crime perpetrators and the consideration of the Panel of Judges in applying criminal sanctions to tax crime perpetrators as stated in Case Decision Number: 213/Pid.Sus/2021/PN.Jkt.Brt where the Panel of Judges imposes a prison sentence of 2 (two) years and 6 (six) months, which is lower than 9 (nine) months compared to the Public Prosecutor's demands. The type of data in this study is secondary data. The data collection technique uses the library search method, which is to systematically study and analyze laws and regulations, books, magazines, newspapers, materials from the internet and other materials related to the object of research, namely tax crimes. Based on the results of research on tax crime cases at the West Jakarta District Court with Decision number: 213/Pid.Sus/2021/PN.Jkt.Brt with the Defendant Bambang Purwosetiyo, Judge's Consideration Based on the Testimony of Witnesses, Evidence, Public Prosecutor's Indictment and Public Prosecutor's Demands. Based on these considerations, the Judge stated that the Defendant must be declared to have been legally and convincingly proven to have committed a criminal act. In addition, during the examination at the trial, the Judge did not see that the Defendant was suffering from an illness, the Defendant was able to answer well and smoothly the questions posed to him, both by the Panel of Judges, the Public Prosecutor, thereby strengthening the opinion and confidence for the Panel of Judges that the Defendant is able to be responsible according to criminal law for the acts he committed. The judge decided to impose a prison sentence of 2 (two) years and 6 (six) months and a fine 2 x 2 X Rp. 4,761,272,973,- (one billion two hundred and seventy-four million six hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-one rupiah). = Rp.9,522,545,946,- (Nine billion five hundred and twenty-two millionfive hundred and forty-five thousand nine hundred and seventy-three rupiah), while the Public Prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of 3 (three) years and 3 (three) months and a fine of 2 X Rp. 4,761,272,973,- (one billion two hundred and seventy-four million six hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-one rupiah). = Rp.9,522,545,946,- (Nine billion five hundred and twenty-two millionfive hundred and forty-five thousand nine hundred and seventy-three rupiah), thus the Judge's decision is 9 (nine) months lower than the Public Prosecutor's demand. There is no detailed explanation regarding the Judge's consideration in deciding on a prison sentence that is 9 (nine) months lower than the Public Prosecutor's demand.

Eyewitness testimony in Brazil: The long road toward a science-based interviewing system.

Eyewitness testimony in Brazil: The long road toward a science-based interviewing system.

TESTIMONIUM DE AUDITU SEBAGAI DASAR PERTIMBANGAN HAKIM DALAM MEMUTUS TINDAK PIDANA PENCABULAN DAN PERSETUBUHAN ANAK

Decision No. 254/Pid.Sus/2023/Pn.Mks, which examined and adjudicated a case of sexual assault and intercourse, was based solely on Testimonium de auditu. The issue is to what extent the available evidence supports Decision No. 254/Pid.Sus/2023/PN.Mks in declaring the defendant not proven legally and convincingly guilty according to the applicable legal standards. The research method used involves secondary data and is structured using normative descriptive research techniques. The discussion and conclusion are that Asdar Muhammad should be charged with sexual assault and intercourse based on written evidence, witness statements, and testimony from a minor victim, according to the analysis conducted (Case No. 254/Pid.Sus/2023/PN.Mks). The importance of witness testimony compared to what is seen, heard, or experienced determines the severity of a case, based on Constitutional Court Decision No. 65/PUU-VIII/2010. However, Asdar Muhammad should have been found guilty of committing sexual assault or intercourse, rather than being declared not guilty, as stated in Constitutional Court Decision No. 65/PUU-VII/2010.

Perceptions of bias and credibility of male and female clinical psychologist and psychiatrist expert witnesses presenting clinical information in the courtroom

Expert witness credentials and gender have independently been shown to influence jurors' perceptions of expert witness credibility and legal decision-making. This study examined how manipulations of expert witness gender (Male/Female) and profession (Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Consultant Psychiatrist) together affected mock jurors' perceptions of expert witness credibility, judgements, and decision-making. Mock jurors (N = 182; 80.9 % were White) were recruited from England and Wales and were randomly assigned to watch a video-recorded mock expert witness testimony. Participants rated the expert witness using the Witness Credibility Scale and reported the likelihood of assigning the defendant to a guilty verdict. Results showed significant interaction effects of expert witness gender and profession on jurors' perceptions of their likeability, trustworthiness, knowledge, and total credibility. Male psychiatrists, followed by female clinical psychologists, received the highest scores in most credibility variables. Varied main effects of expert witness gender and profession on credibility were also found. Overall, jurors' ratings of expert witness credibility, when controlled by the expert's gender and profession, predicted jurors' determination of guilt. This study provides evidence of a potential interaction effect between profession and gender in expert witness credibility and supports existing research linking credibility with ultimate decision-making. More research is needed to understand jurors' unconscious biases and cognitive processes in making legal decisions.

The urgency of victim witness testimony as valid evidence from persons with disabilities is associated with Law Number 12 of 2022 concerning the Crime of Sexual Violence

The urgency of victim witness testimony as valid evidence from persons with disabilities is associated with Law Number 12 of 2022 concerning the Crime of Sexual Violence