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The role of eyewitness identification evidence in felony case dispositions.pdf (295.38 kB)

The role of eyewitness identification evidence in felony case dispositions.

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journal contribution
posted on 2016-02-01, 11:53 authored by Heather Flowe, Amrita Mehta, Ebbe B. Ebbesen
We addressed the question of whether felony case dispositions are associated with eyewitness identification evidence. Toward this end, 725 felony cases (rape, robbery, and assault) were randomly sampled from the archives of a District Attorney’s Office in a large south-western city in the United States. Positive eyewitness identification evidence was more likely in cases issued compared to those rejected for prosecution although other case factors were associated with issuing outcomes to a larger extent. Additionally, eyewitness identification evidence was stronger in prosecuted compared to rejected cases in which eyewitness testimony was the sole evidence against the defendant. Neither the presence of multiple identifications nor non-identifications of the suspect varied across issuing outcomes. The findings are discussed in relation to additional research that is needed at the police and prosecution stages to advance public policy development with respect to the evaluation of eyewitness identification evidence.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

Volume

17

Issue

1

Pages

140 - 159

Citation

FLOWE, H.D., MEHTA, A. and EBBESEN, E.B., 2011. The role of eyewitness identification evidence in felony case dispositions. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 17(1), pp. 140-159.

Publisher

© American Psychological Association

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2011

Notes

This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.

ISSN

1076-8971

eISSN

1939-1528

Language

  • en

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