Witness Memory as Evidence in Criminal Trials

Witness Memory as Evidence in Criminal Trials 1. When, and why, are witnesses’ memories unreliable as evidence in criminal trials in England and Wales? Memory Memory is one’s ability to recall the past events. Memory let us explain our personal experiences and perception about anything which is occurred in past. Types Of Memory There are three types of memory Episodic Memory Episodic memory refers to our memory of special event like accident, death etc. Semantic Memory There are too many general knowledge is stored in one’s mind which comes under the semantic memory type. It also refers to the information which is stored in our mind to perform any skill. It also tells us how to perform in some repeated situation. Procedural Memory Understanding the procedural memory is rather difficult to understand and contains different kind of information. Generally it refers to series of events which occurred on numerous times. Importance Of Witness Memory Witness memory is a fuel of any investigation because it let investigator to collect information about incident but human memory is too fragile to exactly remember every moment. There are also numerous factors involved which affect witness memory that is environment factors, witness factors, stress levels of the witness/victim, weapon focus. When Witness Memory Is Unreliable As Evidence? Witnesses memories are unreliable as evidence in criminal trials in England and Wales when there is a â€Å"TurnBull† direction indicated the state of witness at the time of incident happened because so many researches has found the massive impression on the quality of information. What Is TurnBull? There are too many environmental factors which affect the memory of witness and can damage the quality and quantity of information. R. V. Turnbull guidance proposed a term ADVOKATE Amount of time one observed Distance – What was the distance between event and witness Visibility – How much the scene was clear? Obstruction – Was there anything obscuring the view? Known or seen before – If the situation was familiar? Any reason to remember – What is the reason behind to remember. Time lapse – How long the exposure of event? Error or material discrepancy – Is there any discrepancy between the fact and the description (Booklet). Why Witness State Is Unreliable In England and Wales, Evidence is not reliable, when there is a Turnbull direction in a state of witness because sometime witness rely on external help to recall the incident or he may have perceived wrongly due to distance or visibility or both (Bull, 1999) Generally people under the investigation are not ready to recall the incident currently. Many factors like fear, stress and nervousness can affect their quality of information. Sometimes they rely on external resources to feed them and they wrongly perceive the series of happening occurred at TBR events. Sometimes witness may lie for any previous dispute or grudge. Witness may be biased and can provide wrong information to affect the investigation Conclusion Since witness memory depends on lots of factors which are indicated through the famous term ADVOKATE therefore investigation should be taken with caution and every term of ADVOKATE should be properly and clearly note down. To gather worthy information from the witness, should check the witness personal preference of biasness or favoritism. It should also be checked that whether the witness is pressurized by the culprit to speak lie. What changes should be made, to the procedures for identifying suspects in criminal investigations in England and Wales, according to psychological research? Human memory is too fragile to exactly remember the incident which happened that is why interviewing the witness to identifying the suspect is rather difficult task. It can also affect by the â€Å"Turnbull† directions. Usually witness replies the interviewer in broad term and can only describe six or seven characteristics of suspect like age (Between 20-30) or height (between 5’6’’ – 5’8’’) that is why it is always difficult to get accurate knowledge about victim. The accurate information may be collected through cognitive interview but this type of interview demands too much time to conclude things. These re the reasons for which psychological research stress on the identification parade to identify the culprit. (Kapardis ebrary, 2010) Why Should Be Identification Parade Arranged? Identification parade are arranged to avoid two hurdles of identifying the culprit. Verbal Overshadowing In most of crime, during the investigation, witness is interviewed by more than one officer and provided stream of information due to which he can mix up the details which is stored in witnesses’ mind and the information he is provided by the officers about culprit. If identification parade is arranged then a witness can easily identify the suspect or the person who is somehow linked with the crime. Information To The Public Some crimes are needed to announce in public through media and police shows the picture, video or sketch of suspect in public. Sometimes a totally innocent person can be suspected and shown to public. Witnesses, after seeing the police announcement about suspect can to mix-up the faces of suspect with actual culprit. In that case, after the identification parade, officers are directed to ask witnesses whether they have seen any broadcast on media or not? Asking directly to the witness is rather strange. According to researchers, it is more appropriate to ask logically by the witness rather than directly. Changing Facial Expressions. Facial expressions of people are changed with the passage of time due to weight, tiredness, hair color or culprit can deliberately change it to be hidden from the police but if culprit is arrested for identification parade then he cannot change his facial expression and can be identified by the witness. Conclusion Investigation with witness should be deal with cautious and interviewer should know the art of interviewing to get accurate information. Investigator should avoid direct questions like was that man wearing black shirt? Or did you see blood spot on right side of window? It is recommended to ask series of questions to grab the fact like the series below. What have you seen at spot? Can you tell us the gender of person you have seen? What was he wearing? It is also recommended to setup interview as soon as possible because there is margin of memory fail. Describe the extent to which offender profiling is relied upon both in criminal investigations and in criminal trials in England and Wales.? Offender Profiling Offender profiling is a tool of investigation about the culprit with the help of evidences. Offender profiling is commonly perceive as a magical ability of investigator to put hands on the culprit. It is also called psychological profiling, criminal personality profiling, profile analysis and the offender profiling is carried by the profilers or offender profilers. Offender profiling is a psychological assessment of evidence which is collected from the crime scene. Offender profiler collects evidence from the crime scene and assess assumes the personality type which usually exhibits similar patterns (Jackson Bekerian, 1997). Aims Of Profiling The aim of profiling is to get closer to suspect and get the answer of three questions What happened at the spot of incident? What personality type can be involved in it? What personality traits can be possessed by that personality type? These questions are generally analyzed by the psychologist who are expert of their field and are outside of the police department. Limitations Of Offender Profiling Although the crime scene can reflect the personality of offender and psychiatrist put insights on it but sometimes searching the link between the crime and mental state of offender is not cleared or understandable. It is also criticized that psychologist are helpful only in the crime which are committed in extreme cases of mental illness. They are not much useful in the crimes which are not committed due to mental illness. One more criticism is usually done on clinical approach that psychologists works according to science of psychology which is remain ambiguous and has flaws in it. Understanding and evaluating complex human psyche is rather difficult task and sometimes it is understood completely wrong Conclusion Offender profiling is no doubt a significant part of crime investigation but it is also limited in a way. It restricts psychiatrist to some specific pattern of personality traits while human behavior is always complex and cannot read accurately always. It is not necessary that crime scene always show the exact pattern of behavior which culprit exhibit. Identify the key ways in which the research, into common forms of decision-error, might inform and improve practice in criminal investigations and trials? Deception Identifying someone’s lie is not easy according to research reaching correct result is tending to fall between 50 to 60 percent. The more common reason of this trend is over confidence of people in their ability to judge others. Detection Of Deception Despite of fact that deception cannot be easily caught, people also make some basic judgment errors. These judgment errors are categorized in five types. Pinocchio’s Nose There is indeed some universal signs of lying like stammering, avoid eye contact, blushing but it cannot equally apply to everybody on the earth. So these universal signals may guide to wrong direction. Erroneous Assumptions Some people thing that deception can easily be caught by facial expression or they are the master of face reading. Some people do have the ability of face reading but in general this ability is over estimated. Othello Error This type of error is actually comes in existence due to Shakespeare’s drama where Othello achieved his target by accusing Desdemona but in modern criminal justice system this error misleads because most of people became nervous and feared when the feel that they are under observation. The Plausibility Problem Plausible and implausible problems have problem to judge right because we do not believe implausible event if it is reported by some old man. Countermeasures A natural liar can deceive the interviewer after noticing the interviewer suspicion and can adjust his/her behavior accordingly. Techniques To Improve Decision Errors Scholars and researchers proposed three techniques of improving decision errors. Un- spoken deeds Lying can be judged by the entire body language which includes gestures, postures, facial expressions, voice quality etc. Some common proposed techniques of judging un spoken deeds are: Decrease in movement of entire legs till feet Decrease in hand movements Sudden increase and decrease in voice. These all assumed signs should be deal with cautious because it cannot be true in every situation like deception errors and may lead to in accurate judgment. Spoken Deeds Numerous techniques are used to judge the â€Å"REAL† of words that are written or spoken. The two most famous techniques of read between the lines are: Statement Validity Analysis (SVA) which is developed by Steller and Kohnken in 1997 which is then incorporated by Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA). It implies that our account is different in content and quality in case of reality or imagination. This techniques uses nineteen criteria to judge a statement. This technique is not commonly use in U.K. Physiological Methods The most common technique of physiological method is Polygraph, which measures physiological reaction like heart beat, sweating etc to check the deception. The polygraph is conducted through different sensors that are attached to the body and every physiological reaction recorded as a graphical presentation. Although polygraph is considered as very effective tool of detecting deception and has been used in different countries but it is not used in U.K. criminal justice system due to complex human nature and the fact that human behavior and their psychological reactions are vary from person to person. Conclusion To improve decision making process in U.K spoken deeds and physiological test should be considered because these two techniques have been using in different countries and showing successful results to some extent but these techniques should be used with the caution and must not be rated overly. It should be used with the understanding that human nature varies from person to person and same reactions cannot be equally applied to everybody Bibliography Booklet. (n.d.). Retrieved from Police Service Of Northern Ireland: http://www.psni.police.uk/de/public_order_8th_edition.pdf Milne, R. and Bull, R. (1999).Investigative interviewing: Psychology and practice. Chichester: Wiley.† Kapardis, A., ebrary, I. (2010). Psychology and law: a critical introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press 2010. 1 | Page

Hamlet Analysis :: essays research papers

In Act 1 Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet can be portrayed as either, a harsh, mean, and demanding father or a caring, nice, and understanding dad. This depends on how you manipulate the lighting, actions, which includes speech, and other special effects. By manipulating the lighting on the ghost of King Hamlet, he can be presented as either a demanding and harsh father or a caring and understanding dad. To present the ghost as a demanding and harsh father you could use a bright red light shining on him. Using a red light would portray him as evil because the color red is associated with such things as fire and hell, both which have negative connotations. For example, at the beginning of the scene a single red light can shine down on the ghost from behind casting a dark shadow onto Hamlet. When the ghost says, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.'; The single light from behind could move to directly over the ghost casting a shadow onto his face to make him look even more menacing. Also, lights all over the stage would begin at a low red glow and slowly rise to a bright red engulfing the whole stage when the ghost finishes off the quote saying, “murder';. If you manipulate the light in another way the ghost can be p resented as a caring father. By using a white or a blue light would portray him as good because the colors of white and blue are connected with things such as heaven and angels, both of which have good connotations. For example, when showing the ghost, a white light could be coming at him from all angles, following wherever he goes. When the ghost of King Hamlet says, “Taint not thy mind…aught.'; A white light could be coming from under the stage shining up onto the ghost, and also from all other angles. This would cause the ghost to shine brightly from the light bouncing off his armor. Saying this quote while having white light surround him would further portray him as caring. This is because he is telling Hamlet not to harm, or even think of harming his mother. Not only does lighting show how the ghost of King Hamlet can be portrayed in two different ways, but it can also be displayed by his actions and speech.

Body Ritual Among the Nacirema

Connor Doyle Summary of Body Ritual among the Nacirema 10/20/2012 Introduction to Sociology The Nacirema Horace Miner depicted this cultural group located in Northwest America â€Å"living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles† (Miner 503). Closely imitating the United States of America. If you take a look at the Nacirema's name spelled backwards, its American. The concept behind this is that Miner wanted to describe American's rituals in a way that people would deem crazy.But in all actuality, it's what us humans do everyday and never think twice of it. For if we forgot to do one of these things, we would feel uncomfortable all day long. â€Å"According to Nacirema mythology, their nation was originated by a culture hero, Notgnihsaw,† Hines describes that, â€Å"he was known for two great feats of strength—the throwing of a piece of wampum across the river Pa-To-Mac and the chopp ing down of a cherry tree in which the Spitit of Truth resided† (Miner 503). This is referring to, what many religions call, God. It's a universal feeling that everyone wants to encounter, that their is a higher power somewhere.He then goes on to say the â€Å"Nacirema culture is charecterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat† (Miner 503). This is refering to our Free Market Economy. The way we evolved in a â€Å"rich natural habitat†, is that we've always been prosepering since our birth as a country. With the exceptions of some down falls, we have been the world's leading power. It states that the Nacirema focus a lot of activity on the human body and its appearance. He states that it is a dominate concern, making every other aspect in life second best.Though many cultures have similar rituals to this, regarding the body, these aspects on society are quite unique. They even believe that their own human body is ugl y making it a natural reaction to try and improve your situation. They also acknowledge the fact that the human body deterioates and attracts disease. Since man knows these facts, the only option left is to perform rituals regarding the improvement of your body. He says that in every Nacirema's house their is at lease one shrine devoted mainly to the self-improvement of the people. This is refering to what we commonly know as a bathroom.If you really come to think about it, the bathroom is almost souly used for self-improvement. Every action from shaving, to brushing your teeth is preconcieved and is subconcsiously telling you that you need these things everyday. He goes on to say that â€Å"the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret. † Then he states that the only time you really talk about these rituals are to your children, and only telling them the basics while they are still growing up. Another big part of the Nacirema culture is the medicine man.He is the only one that knows what is in the secret potion. Every Nacirema believes that if they are to go without these magic potions, they would cease to live. It goes hand in hand with the culture of our society. If people don't have a cure for the smallest thing, they still feel vulnerable. We rely on so many perscriptions, medications, and cure-alls for a quick fix. Without these things, we as a society would feel completely weak. They say that the medicine man can only work if they recieve â€Å"substantial gifts† (Miner 504), which is the same for our doctors as well.Even when the Nacirema have been done with the charms, they still keep the expired remains in their drawer just for safety. In fear that without these charms, they would remain vulnerable. The medicine man is even able to make a women's breast larger or smaller, depending on the request. The holy man, refered to in the Nacirema culture, is what we commonly know as the Dentist. Miner says t hat in addition to brushing and maintaing their teeth, they visit a â€Å"holy-mouth-man once or twice a year. They refer to a Dentist tool's as â€Å"paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers, awls, probes, and prods† (Miner 504). To the untrained eye that's what it looks like. Not many other cultures around the world, that are not as prosperous, ever make visits to a Dentist. They go on to say that â€Å"these objects in the exorcism of the evils of the mouth involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client† (Miner 505). Their has always been a fear of pain when attending the Dentist. Young children dread going every year, but to their parents and their society it is standard to have a high maintance mouth.

Emotional Intelligence and Athletic Performance - 1744 Words

According to Salovey and Mayer (1990), â€Å"understanding emotions involves comprehension of how basic emotions are blended to form complex emotions, how emotions are affected by events surrounding experiences, and whether various emotional reactions are likely in given social settings. Regulating emotions encompasses the control of emotions in oneself and in others. An individual’s emotional intelligence is an indication of how he or she perceives, understands, and regulates emotions. In sum, emotional intelligence is a form of intelligence that involves â€Å"the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions† (Salovery and Mayer, 1990,†¦show more content†¦Research has pointed out the importance for us to develop a clear perspective on the theoretical development of EQ. Moreover, how this theory may or may not overlap with tradit ional forms of intelligence and with psychological skills and strategies as they relate to athletic performance. In the Lane et al. (2010) study, the researchers have explored the findings of how emotional intelligence is related to emotions experienced before successful and unsuccessful performances and how certain emotions are correlated with successful performances and poor performances. Previous research has shown that emotional intelligence is correlated positively with pleasant emotions and negatively with unpleasant emotions. Further, Lane et al. (2009c) found emotional intelligence scores correlated with frequent use of psychological skills. Athletes reporting frequent use of psychological skills (Thomas et al., 1999) also appear to report high scores on the self-report emotional intelligence scales. B. Comparison of the purposes posed by the studies The purpose of the Zizzi et al. (2003) study was to find a relationship between emotional intelligence and athletic performance in a sample of Division I baseball players. This study explored the relationships between emotional intelligence and the global measures of baseball performance in a sample of college baseball players. More specifically, aShow MoreRelatedThe Theory Of Ei As A Mental Ability861 Words   |  4 Pagesreferring to an individual’s tendency to manage his or her emotions and is usually measured using self-report style questionnaires (Laborde, Brà ¼ll, Weber Anders, 2011) such as the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue; Petrides, 2009). The EI as a mental ability approach considers EI as a form of intelligence. 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