Estimating the reliability of eyewitness identifications from police lineups

John Wixted; Laura Mickes; John Dunn; Steven Clark; William Wells

doi:10.1073/pnas.1516814112

Estimating the reliability of eyewitness identifications from police lineups

John Wixted, Laura Mickes, John Dunn, Steven Clark, William Wells

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

In contrast to prior research, recent studies of simulated crimes have reported that (i) eyewitness confidence can be a strong indicator of accuracy and (ii) traditional simultaneous lineups may be diagnostically superior to sequential lineups. The significance of our study is that these issues were investigated using actual eyewitnesses to a crime. Recent laboratory trends were confirmed: Eyewitness confidence was strongly related to accuracy, and simultaneous lineups were, if anything, diagnostically superior to sequential lineups. These results suggest that recent reforms in the legal system, which were based on the results of older research, may need to be reevaluated.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	304–309
Number of pages	6
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	113
Issue number	2
Early online date	22 Dec 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1516814112
Publication status	Published - 12 Jan 2016

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Access to Document

10.1073/pnas.1516814112

Accepted ManuscriptAccepted author manuscript, 860 KB
Supplementary MaterialsAccepted author manuscript, 1.29 MB

http://www.pnas.org/content/113/2/304.full

Cite this

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title = "Estimating the reliability of eyewitness identifications from police lineups",

abstract = "In contrast to prior research, recent studies of simulated crimes have reported that (i) eyewitness confidence can be a strong indicator of accuracy and (ii) traditional simultaneous lineups may be diagnostically superior to sequential lineups. The significance of our study is that these issues were investigated using actual eyewitnesses to a crime. Recent laboratory trends were confirmed: Eyewitness confidence was strongly related to accuracy, and simultaneous lineups were, if anything, diagnostically superior to sequential lineups. These results suggest that recent reforms in the legal system, which were based on the results of older research, may need to be reevaluated.",

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AU - Clark, Steven

AU - Wells, William

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AB - In contrast to prior research, recent studies of simulated crimes have reported that (i) eyewitness confidence can be a strong indicator of accuracy and (ii) traditional simultaneous lineups may be diagnostically superior to sequential lineups. The significance of our study is that these issues were investigated using actual eyewitnesses to a crime. Recent laboratory trends were confirmed: Eyewitness confidence was strongly related to accuracy, and simultaneous lineups were, if anything, diagnostically superior to sequential lineups. These results suggest that recent reforms in the legal system, which were based on the results of older research, may need to be reevaluated.

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