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Eyewitness Identifications & Photos Exposure

Photo exposure can make a face seem familiar, even when it is not (Criminal, 2006). It can be particularly suggestive when combined with a story implicating a suspect in a crime, and a witness to the crime may be swayed into believing the picture was actually of the perpetrator. One of the tellers told the police she saw the man's picture on television, and another said she had recognized it from the newspaper. In either case, the media presentation of the person as a suspect in the robbery may have influenced their recognition, but a third person at the bank also said she recognized the suspect as the person who robbed the bank. It is possible but unusual for three separate witnesses to a robbery to identify the wrong person, and the same wrong person.

The one teller had seen the image on television the night before, very close to the time of the robbery, so the image would have been fresh in her mind. Since the other two tellers reported the recognition of the teller the next day when the police officer visited the bank, the image would have been fresh in their minds too. However, the three may have talked before the police officer arrived and have reinforced each other's belief that the man pictured was the suspect.

On the other hand, there is also the evidence of the suspect's car speeding up the alley behind the bank at about the time of the robbery or shortly thereafter, which places him at the scene of the crime at the time the robbery was committed. The officer returned to the bank a few days later and showed one of the tellers a photo of the suspect, which she identified as the robber. This was a few days after she had recognized the photo in the media, so this reinforces her testimony in that she recognized the photo of the suspect as the one she had seen in the media. Preferably, when photos of suspects are shown to eyewitnesses, they should not be shown in isolation, but should be included with several ph...

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Eyewitness Identifications & Photos Exposure. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 13:16, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1705476.html