Subjects were 129 eligible and experienced jurors from Dade County, Wisconsin, who viewed a videotaped trial that involved an eyewitness identification. Ten factors associated with the crime and identification (e.g. disguise of the perpetrator, retention interval, confidence of the witness) were manipulated. The results of this mock-jury study were combined with those of a previous study using the same experimental stimuli and procedures, but using undergraduates as subjects. This analysis showed that the confidence of the eyewitness was the most powerful predictor of verdicts (p less than .05) and that the differences between undergraduates and eligible jurors in their sensitivity to eyewitness evidence were negligible. 17 references. (Author abstract)
Juror Sensitivity to Eyewitness Identification Evidence
NCJ Number
123298
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 14 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1990) Pages: 185-191
Date Published
1990
Length
7 pages
Annotation
A mock-jury study was conducted to examine juror sensitivity to eyewitness identification evidence.
Abstract