This week’s lesson focuses on the criminal justice system and the many applications applied social psychology theory has influenced in this field. The textbook discussed the case of Jennifer Thompson, who was sexually assaulted, and then falsely identified Ronald Cotton of this crime. Ronald Cotton spent 11 years in prison for a crime he was falsely accused of performing, even though he admittedly denied the accusations. During Cotton’s incarnation another inmate, Bobby Poole, bragged about his involvement in this sexual assault, which he later denied in court. It was through the diligence of the Innocence Project that led to further DNA testing and the exoneration of Ronald Cotton (as cited in Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). As horrible as this scenario played out for both Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton, it has been revealed over the past decades that many individuals have been accused and sentenced to prison for crimes they may not have committed based on false eyewitness identification.
I watched a video of Jennifer Thompson tell the story of her sexual assault and in the video, she describes her conscientious effort to be able to identify the assailant of her attack (PopTech 2011). She purposely tried to find identifying markers of the perpetrators clothing, skin, height, and arm length. Thompson tried to “etch” anything that would enable her to identify her assailant, should she survive this attack (PopTech, 2011). However, as adamant as Thompson was in her accuracy of identifying Ronald Cotton as her attacker, she was wrong. Two factors that may have contributed to Thompson’s eyewitness misidentification, include priming and the cross-race effect (Hastay, 2009; Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).
The Innocence Project claims that eyewitness misidentification has been the leading cause of wrongful convictions in 75% of the 250 exonerated US prisoners (as cited in Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Hastay (2009) suggested that Jennifer Thompson may have been primed by police detectives to select Ronald Cotton as the attacker when she helped a sketch artist develop a composite of her attacker. Visual priming suggests Thompson’s exposure to the sketch of her attacker may have influenced a later response when she was exposed to a police lineup which contained Ronald Cotton who represented the sketch. Furthermore, once Thompson identified Cotton as her attacker the police provided verbal priming indicating they thought he was the perpetrator. These two priming incidents further validated Thompson’s affirmation that Cotton was her attacker.
The cross-race effect suggests that individuals are better at recognizing and identifying faces of those in their own race than those of differing races (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Thompson is a white female who was sexually assaulted by a black male, Bobby Poole. Dodson and Dobolyi (2015) studied the cross-race effect in conjunction with decision time and accuracy and the results suggest when identifying cross-race faces participants are “overconfident when selecting a cross-race face from a line-up which worsens the relationship between their confidence and the accuracy of an identifications for cross-race than same face faces” (Dodson & Dobolyi, 2015). The detective involved in the Thompson case stated that once she narrowed the pictures of her possible alleged attackers down to two, she spent several minutes staring at them. The detective thought this length of time was more indicative of an accurate identification. However, research has found that “faster decisions are typically more accurate for positive identification from line-ups than slower identifications” (Dodson & Dobolyi, 2015). The cross-race effect is very robust and certainly this phenomenon may have played a role in the Thompson case (Bornstein, et al… 2013).
Although, Jennifer Thompson stated she consciously tried to “etch every detail of her attacker in her mind,” she still identified the wrong individual. Unfortunately, Ronald Cotton was an innocent man who spent over a decade in prison for a crime he did not commit, based on false identification. As we know memory is faulty, especially when stressed (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Thompson’s case certainly has illustrated the inaccuracies of eyewitness accounts when it relates to priming and the cross-race effect. However, many cases of sexual assault now have DNA technology that will more accurately and quickly identify the alleged attacker’s innocence or guilt.
Bornstein, B.H., Laub, C.E., Meissner, C.A., Susa, K.J. (2013). The Cross-Race Effect: Resistant to Instructions. Journal of Criminology. Doi 10.1155/2013/745836 Retrieved from https://www.hindawi.com/archive/2013/745836/cta/
Dodson, C.S. and Dobolyi, D.G. (2015). Confidence and Eyewitness Identifications: The Cross-Race Effect, Decision, Time and Accuracy. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 30. 113-125. Retrieved from http://sk8es4mc2l.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Confidence+and+Eyewitness+Identifications%3A+The+Cross-Race+Effect%2C+Decision+Time+and+Accuracy&rft.jtitle=Applied+Cognitive+Psychology&rft.au=Dodson%2C+Chad+S&rft.au=Dobolyi%2C+David+G&rft.date=2016-01-01&rft.issn=0888-4080&rft.eissn=1099-0720&rft.volume=30&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=113&rft.epage=125&rft_id=info:doi/10.1002%2Facp.3178&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1002_acp_3178¶mdict=en-US
Hastay, L. (2009) How do eyewitnesses make mistakes? Pickingcottonbook.com Retrieved from http://www.pickingcottonbook.com/eyewitness.html
PopTech (2011). Thompson & Cotton Forgive. Youtube.com Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB7MrfJ7X_c&app=desktop
Schneider, F., Gruman, J., and Coutts, L. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. (2ed). Washington D.C., Sage Publications.
You make some very interesting points such as people of the same race make identifying others of the same race easier. This is part of the reason that eyewitness testimony is becoming more troublesome to hold up in court. It is going the way of the obsolete lie detector test. I am glad that someone brought up the John Oliver piece as I also think it does a good job in highlighting how bad science, that is accepted as valid, can ruin peoples lives based on false memories. It would seem that the overloading of our senses also contribute to misidentification. In an episode of Sherlock when he was interviewing witnesses about after an attack on a victim, Sherlock runs over and covers their eyes and has them explain exactly what they just saw. In a article printed in The Guardian, researchers reported that in addition to building rapport with a witness “found fresh evidence suggesting that encouraging people to block off their vision boosts their ability to remember events accurately” (Bowcott, 2015).
The study also reported that when they covered peoples eyes that their memory acted differently. Shutting off external distractions allowed the focus to become sharper and witnesses were able to recall additional details.
The issues related to the criminal system failing, because of bad science or flawed eyewitnesses, is a concern that needs to be addressed to be able to provide a fair trial.
References
Bowcott, O. (2015, January 15). Covering eyes can help witnesses recall crimes, study finds. The Guardian, Law. Retrieved from https://www.sciencealert.com/closing-your-eyes-helps-you-remember-more-accurately
This was a very engaging blog post! I wrote my blog on a young women who was wrongfully accused of a crime as well. As you mentioned, lineups are not the most accurate way to identify a criminal. People’s memory highly tractable due to influencing factors in the environment. Therefore, basing a criminal investigation solely based off of eyewitnesses would be a very bad idea. This was one of many great examples of why eyewitnesses are not helpful in criminal investigations. I liked your reasoning behind why this case was faulty. The cross race effect and priming are potential reasons why this man was mistakenly incarcerated. I believe the self fulfilling prophecy could have also played a role in this situation. The self fulfilling prophecy happens when people have certain expectations that end up influencing their results (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Jennifer Thompson could have seen Ronald Cotton in the lineup, and not Bobby Poole. In this situation, Jennifer’s expectations would be to see a guilty man of the African American decent in the lineup, and that man would be the person who sexually assaulted her. So Jennifer saw Ronald Cotton, who is African American, in the lineup up and chose him because he matched her visual expectations. I personally believe lineups should not be used anymore because of their faulty results. I agree with you, DNA testing is a lot more reliable than eyewitness testimonies. But, if lineups must be used, sequential lineups have been proven to be more efficient compared to simultaneous lineups (Schneider et. al, 2012).
References
Schneider, F., Gruman, J., and Coutts, L. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. (2ed). Washington D.C., Sage Publications.
I think you make some very interesting points as I did not know things such as people of the same race make identifying other of the same race easier. This is part of the reason that eyewitness testimony is becoming more troublesome to hold up in court. It is going the way of the obsolete lie detector test. I am glad that someone brought up the John Oliver piece as I think it does a good job in talking about how this can legally ruin peoples lives based on false memories. I feel like overloaded sense contribute to this as well which is why I thought I would bring up something I saw in an episode of Sherlock (I can’t legally post any clip of it) but after someone was attacked, Sherlock runs over and cover their eyes and has them explain exactly what they just saw. According to the study, I found that when they covered peoples eyes that their memory acted differently. (The group that shut their eyes answered 71 percent of the questions correctly, while the group that kept their eyes open answered only 48 percent of the questions.) – Myles Gough
Closing Your Eyes Helps You Remember More Accurately
Myles Gough – https://www.sciencealert.com/closing-your-eyes-helps-you-remember-more-accurately
Greetings,
Wow…great analysis! It was truly amazing to read the lesson content and realize how there is a pause for concern regarding some of the methods being used within the criminal justice system. Ironically, this past weekend, I happened to catch an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (https://youtu.be/ScmJvmzDcG0). Similarly, to Cotton, the segment showcased how Keith Harward spent 33 years in prison for a crime he was convicted of due to incorrect bite mark evidence (Oliver, 2017). Moreover, Oliver (2017) illustrated how another person (Tribble) spent 26 years in prison due to faulty evidence regarding hair samples. In the segment, Oliver (2017) compared how TV can sensationalize the science behind the forensic sciences and Oliver continued by showing how certain forensic methods do not meet the requirements of science with experts often overstating/misleading their results and conclusions. While our readings and lesson commentary do not center completely around the science, I being this up because what if you have a situation where a video confession is being used, which enhance the possibility for the jury to make a fundamental attribution error since they cannot the totality of the environment where the confession took place (Penn State, n.d.). Then evidence is displayed based on scientific methods, which lack reliability and validity in the scientific community. This could amply these effects even more and make it harder for someone to prove their case for why they are not guilty. What are your thoughts?
Again, great post!
Brandon
References
Oliver J. ( 2017. October 1). Forensic Science: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ScmJvmzDcG0
Penn State University World Campus. (2017). PSYCH424. Lesson 8: The Legal System/Criminal Justice. Retrieved October 13, 2017 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1867078/modules