Abstract
This chapter examines the appropriateness of statement analysis in the evaluation of adult eyewitness testimony. A distinction is made between the cognitive and the motivational aspects of statement analysis. The cognitive evaluation focuses on the detail and accuracy of the account. This has been the concern of the laboratory based studies of eyewitness testimony. The motivational evaluation is concerned with assessing the credibility of the account. The chapter presents a review of field studies which evaluated the cognitive aspects of eyewitness accounts of actual crimes. It is concluded that for some crimes witnesses can form remarkable memories. A remarkable memory is distinguished by its detail, its accuracy and the fact that it persists over time. Such memories stand in contrast to those usually studied in the laboratory. A quantitative procedure has proved useful in the analysis of real witness’ memory. The chapter concludes with an examination of a laboratory study and a criminal case in which the quantitative procedure was combined with qualitative analysis to evaluate statement credibility. The preliminary results indicate that this combination of approaches may be effective in assisting credibility assessment.
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© 1989 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Yuille, J.C., Cutshall, J. (1989). Analysis of the Statements of Victims, Witnesses and Suspects. In: Yuille, J.C. (eds) Credibility Assessment. Nato Science, vol 47. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7856-1_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7856-1_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4043-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-7856-1
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