Brutal Crime Investigation

Eyewitness accounts play a huge role in general in trials and verdicts, but may be unreliable many times, with certain views placed on evidence provided by children. Unreliability may arise from not being able to recount the identity of the accused, the actions and speech occurring during that time, the relationship of individuals towards the person in question, and many

“The child, at three and a half years old, is incompetent to appear in court as a witness… If the child is incompetent to testify in court, why isn’t the child incompetent to testify out—make the same statement out of court?” (Ohio 2). This shows that the child, while he may be telling the truth, is still not seen as someone that is allowed to testify in court as a real witness to the crime. The misuse of the child’s words within the case of Darius Clark is again shown that he was not able to have real testimony presented in front of the court to be seen as real or not.

Although it is not our job to interrogate a child, depending upon the relationship you may have, inquiring can provide more information about the matter. It is imperative to make sure not to make the situation uncomfortable or put the child in discomfort. It is important to listen, be supportive, stay level headed, and believe. (Florida

Other information, such as knowledge prior and after the event may integrate into this reconstruction and so what is assumed to be the correct recall of the event may have been altered. (Read et al.) Loftus (1976, in 2 Law & Psychol. Rev 1976) presented 50 students pictures of a offender and bystanders with a corresponding story.

Part One is very informational and contains the bulk of the book’s research. The information was presented in a thesis format; Loftus stated a claim and then supported her ideas with research and quotations from experts in the field of law and memory. Part One is helpful for psychologists, attorneys, and interested law people. The major principles concerning the errors in eyewitness testimony are supported by research and are accepted by psychologists (Kassin, Ellsworth, & Smith, 1989). Part One will contribute to the future of psychology by showcasing how the memory works and the different ways it is manipulated and changed: this will allow jurors and lawyers to become more wary when dealing with a traumatized

They wanted him to implicate the uncle. They coerced his statement made him say things that’s not true. He was easily to be manipulated. While being interrogated he did’nt have a lawyer and no parents. He was manipulated into given false confessions.

An individual’s psychological maturity is an imperative factor in understanding an adolescent’s decision-making process. For years, mental health specialists and judicial decision makers have worked hard on defining youth’s cognitive and emotional capacities that influence their behavior. If researchers could pin point the key elements that would be a huge step forward in understanding why juveniles act the way they do. Kelly, Miller, Redlich, Kleinman, and Lamb, in their journal article, “A Taxonomy of Interrogation Methods,” define taxonomy as “the science of classification, organizes what is known about a phenomenon in such a fashion that is accessible and sensible to consumers of the information… it systemizes established observations that

This week’s topic was very interesting to learn about how important eyewitnesses can be when a crime and accidents do occur. In the case that was presented in the 60-minute segment of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson is exactly how legal system can fail us when it comes to the eyewitnesses’ identification testimony and how a person’s perception and memory can be altered. The aspect of psychology and law research from this week’s course material is most relevant to the topic of perception and memory. The memory has different stages the first is encoding the process of entering perception into memory.

Introduction Many important court cases depend on memory-based evidence. When there is not enough physical evidence to convict a suspect, law enforcement relies on testimonies and confessions to put criminals behind bars, yet, not all testimonies are reliable. Throughout the years, there have been many people who have been falsely convicted based on inadequate police interrogation methods that allowed for false confessions to occur. Effectiveness of Interrogation Methods Used by Civil Law Enforcement

However, if we find out later that they have only told a tale then we will know that a different road must be taken to provide the correct type of help they need. But, if we ignore a child and later find out that what they were saying was very much true, I don’t believe I would be able to forgive myself. Another important thing I want to keep in mind with my future in this field is that those directly affected by a traumatic event are not the only ones that need help getting through the effects of the event.

Sensational Murders Though dying is a natural part of life, most people do not imagine a sensational death. Murders are usually studied and are seen as more interesting than any other form of death, and the reason may not always be how they were killed, but why the person that did the killing decided to do so. In the small town of Medford, Iowa in 1900, Margaret Hossack committed a murder against her husband, named John. It occurred in a larger town, making it more dramatic to the citizens who openly discussed what they thought led her to commit the act of violence.

As the circumstances of child abuse testimonies have only started being taken seriously in the past thirty or so years, there has not been much research on the short term and long term effects of children testifying in criminal court. All child abuse cases are individually significant to their circumstances and they are almost always complicated when it comes to children having to testify in court. The effect of abuse on the child, be it short term or long term appear to be worse if the abuse came from a family member, especially a parental figure and if the child had to testify multiple times. It is also very difficult to discern whether if the child displays signs of trauma if it was a result of the abuse, the harshness of testifying in court; in many cases in front of the abuser, or if it was a combination of the whole ordeal. There are also certain conditions, a child has that can make them more predisposed to experiencing the ordeal as extremely

Findings from this project will result in at least one peer-reviewed international publication, and will be presented in international psychology and law conferences. Further, the findings will be disseminated to police, judges and expert witnesses working in the field of Legal Psychology at meetings including the annual International Investigative Interviewing Research Group conference and the Forensic Psychology Update conference in Maastricht. Both events are attended by police and legal practitioners and provide a platform for researchers to deliver their findings directly to end-users. Furthermore, the section of Forensic Psychology that the applicant is a member of, maintains a well-respected and highly visited blog where our findings could be posted. Finally our findings will be disseminated to the general public with the use of newspaper articles.

As observed with Taylor, he could easily tell that someone new had come in his house and he did not respond to me the way he responded to his mother. Cognitive development during childhood plays a vital role in their future abilities and

Now, when collecting information, the investigator also needs to question the victim, any person seeing what happened, the suspect, and any other person related to the crime. In the ancillary disciplines the investigator needs to be able to use multiple techniques to be able to get answers that will be helpful rather than the misleading ones. They must find ways to communicate with victims that may be scared or can’t remember what had happened and when that comes up they need to be able to know how to react and interact with them. They must also gather any surveillance that may be nearby in case something may have caught the attack or crime on video. (Osterburg, W., J., Ward, H., R. (11/2012).