Testimony psychology

Perhaps it is the scope of legal psychology that is most known at the academic level. The Testimony psychology It is an area of ​​knowledge that studies how a witness perceives, retains and recovers information about an event or a person.

Sometimes, newspapers They surprise us with the news of a judicial error motivated by the statements of a witness. Thus, two of the most notable cases in our country:

One of them a person remained for 2 years accused of a crime he had not committed. The error was due to the fact that the owner of the establishment where the crime was committed identified that person as the author and also recognized him as guilty among the members of a wheel of prisoners carried out. The reality is that this person was not the robber but a client who had bought in his business 3 years, and that's why his face sounded.

In another case, a person was accused of murder. He was mistakenly identified 7 people as the author of a murder for having smallpox face like that of the authentic murderer, whom the police found after this person had been in prison for three months.

Content

• Testimony psychology: where its importance lies
  • The psychology of the witness
  • The importance of memory in the psychology of testimony
  • Exhibition of a case to illustrate this last idea
    • The importance of offering an exact testimony
  • Conclusion
  • References

Testimony psychology: where its importance lies

The identification of a suspect For one or more witnesses as a testimony, it constitutes one of the fundamental elements of criminal processes.

These two cases would be examples of the importance of memory so that identification is correct or incorrect. This incorrect identification could have as a consequence not only the conviction of an innocent person but also the acquittal of the true guilty murderer. This failure in identification is known as unconscious transfer.

In this article, we will analyze the factors that can contribute to fact such as these and how psychologists have contributed to their prevention.

The psychology of the witness

First, interest has focused on understanding why people erroneously identify others, and secondly, in trying to improve this identification.

We know, for example, that there are variables inherent in the same situation that can affect the witness's memory: duration, level of violence, lighting conditions, etc. and also influence variables inherent to the witness: level of stress, sex, age, expectations, physiological state, etc.

Testimony psychology research has dedicated special attention to Study of the memory of face -to -face witnesses. As is known, memory is a complex process in which we can identify three moments: acquisition, retention and recovery.

The importance of memory in the psychology of testimony

The acquisition includes the perception and coding of the original event, as well as the transfer of information from the long -term work memory. The memory that remains in memory is not an exact replica of the perceived event, but is affected by variables inherent in the situation as variables inherent to the witness as we have seen.

Retention refers to the time between the observation of the event and the subsequent memory. During this period the information becomes less complete and exact. Two factors influence it: the retention interval and post-account information.

Finally, the third moment corresponds to memory. In this phase there is the recovery of the information that is stored in memory.

Despite the importance of each of these moments for the psychology of testimony, the reality is that not everyone has received the same attention in forensic research. The first two have been subject to more studies.

And regarding the third moment, Information recovery has focused on the person who must remember the facts. That is, in the witness and not in that person in charge of helping him in his task, that is, the policeman.

However, without a good performance of the interview manager during this third moment, the conditions in which the acquisition and retention took place took place.

Exhibition of a case to illustrate this last idea

One night, 4 people leave a restaurant. On the way to the car, they are assaulted by 2 young people. One of them armed with a razor.

Threatens one of the group's people and pushes them towards the wall. Several street lamps illuminate the scene. One of the witnesses react rapidly and runs to ask for help.

The other 2 are helpless before the threat to the victim. You are convinced that you will receive help, it takes money delivery. Time passes and the threat becomes more determined.

After a few seconds, the victim ends up giving his money to the assailant who flees with his partner. The victim and one of the witnesses were expert psychologists in experimental forensic psychology and specifically in psychology of the testimony. The other 2 people were young researchers in this same field.

The victim knowing that one of the problems when identifying an assailant is the focus of attention on the gun during the assault, he avoided doing so.

In addition, he invested the time he resisted delivering the money in memorizing in detail the physical features of the assailant, looking for possible identifying signs and carefully studied his clothes.

The importance of offering an exact testimony

The knowledgeable witnesses of the importance of an exact and detailed testimony performed a similar task. Witnesses and victim avoided commenting what happened until after being interrogated by the police, just 1 hour later.

Once at the police station, it was only allowed to declare the victim. The transcription of his statement was reduced to just a couple of paragraphs by the police officer in charge of taking a statement. The questions asked almost exclusively on the description of the stolen.

No album was presented with suspect photographs. When the policeman were warned that on this occasion, witnesses and victim, were experts in psychology of the testimony and that they were trained and willing to provide exact and reliable information, they were only content with evasive.

Since then, no victim or witnesses have been called to make any identification And, of course, no suspect has been arrested. As seen, this case is a good example of the importance of the performance of the person in charge of collecting the information.

Conclusion

In this case, even when the acquisition of information had been carried out in optimal conditions (Good lighting, prolonged duration, witnesses and trained victims) And the retention interval did not mean any risk to information (Delay of only a few minutes and testimonies not contaminated by information after the event) even though these things happen, no statement as complete and exact was obtained as it could be.

The use of inadequate interview techniques can limit the amount of information that the witness provides during the memory of the face -to -face events.

Therefore, So important is the memory, codification and recovery of memories, such as the proper use of legal-formal research techniques and interviews. The importance of the interview is fundamental.

References

• Arce, r., & Fariña, F. (2006). Testimony psychology: evaluation of credibility and psychic footprint in the criminal context. General Council of the Judiciary (ed.), Psychology of testimony and expert test, 39-103.
• Manzanero, a. L., & González, J. L. (2013). Advances in Testimony Psychology. Santiago de Chile: Juridical Editions of Santiago.
• Manzanero, a. L., & Muñoz, J. M. (2011). The psychological expert test on the credibility of the testimony: psycho-legal reflections. Madrid: Sepin, 1-13.