Eyewitness reports have been used in courtrooms to administer justice for a long period. The effectiveness of the information is based on the different social factors. The annotated bibliography will address the topic of how the race and ethnicity of the suspect and witness impact eyewitness identification accuracy. The paper will identify scholarly journals on the topic and highlight the author’s credentials, the intended audience of the article, and the reasons why the article is relevant to the research topic.
Estudillo, A. J. (2021). Self-reported face recognition abilities for own and other-race faces. Journal of Criminal Psychology, 11(2), 105-115.
The author has a background in research on the topic of face recognition biases and is based at the Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University. The study intends to address policymakers and researchers on the issue of recognition biases for both own and other races. The paper can also address the people tasked with designing frameworks that reduce racial bias during eyewitness identification. The paper focuses on whether people have the capabilities to identify other-race faces. The author adopted the Cambridge face memory test and the Cambridge face memory test for the methodology section. The study findings indicate that individuals can better recognize the faces of their races than those of other-races. The participants reported challenges identifying the faces of other races, which was different from the recognition of their own-race. The findings of the paper will be essential in understanding the impact of race on eyewitness identification. The study will also help in enhancing the knowledge of the identification of suspects by witnesses from a different racial group.
Wilson, R. A., & Sonnentag, T. L. (2021). The Effect of Race of the Perpetrator and Misinformation on Eyewitness Accuracy and Confidence. Modern Psychological Studies, 26(1), 8.
The authors of the article are both based at Xavier University, which shows that they have a background in research and teaching. This is essential as it enhances the impact of the findings. The study addresses the limits on research in eyewitness accuracy and confidence. The authors also address policymakers in the criminal justice system on the issues of the effects of race on the perpetrator and misinformation. The results of the paper can be essential for government entities concerned with providing justice to the people. The article seeks to understand the impact of misinformation on eyewitness identification accuracy and confidence in circumstances where the race/ethnicity is different from that of the witness. The findings of the paper show that the accuracy of the participants and confidence was low when the race/ethnicity of the perpetrator was different from their race/ethnicity. This paper will be useful as it highlights the link between suspect race/ethnicity and inaccurate eyewitness identification.
Holmes, K. (2021). The Effect of Race and Crime Type on Eyewitness Identification (Publication No. 546) [Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University-Commerce]. Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
The author published the article with the view of being awarded a Master of science (MS) and being involved in teaching and research in the criminal justice system. The study has been analyzed and checked before being posted, which enhances its relevance and use by other researchers. The paper focuses on the effect of race and crime type on eyewitness identification. The study seeks to provide insight into the factors that lead to wrongful convictions as a result of mistaken eyewitness identifications. The author indicates that the intended audience is the criminal justice system as it has to continuously evaluate the process of eyewitness identification. The research findings show that black targets are likely to be identified as suspects as compared to white targets. Therefore, the research will be useful in reviewing how racial bias impacts the process of eyewitness identification for both suspects and witnesses.
Maeder, E. M., & Ewanation, L. (2018). What makes race salient? Juror decision-making in same-race versus cross-race identification scenarios and the influence of expert testimony. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45(8), 1234-1251.
The authors are both based at Carleton University and have published different articles focusing on the criminal justice system. The paper intends to address policymakers and researchers who are focused on understanding how race affects decision-making during eyewitness identification. The study was focused on juror decisions when the defendant and eyewitnesses are either black/white. The results of the study indicate that black jurors were more likely to convict a white defendant who had been identified by a black eyewitness than a black defendant who had been identified by a white eyewitness. The study addresses the criminal justice system as it has a significant role to play in creating effective ways to identify suspects. The paper will be crucial in highlighting how the race of the witness and suspect impacts the decision-making of a juror. The findings will provide insight into how racial bias affects eyewitness identification accuracy.
Flaskerud, J. H. (Ed.). (2020). Faces: Identification and Biases. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 41(2), 168-171.
The editor of the paper is a registered nurse and is based at the University of California, Los Angeles. The article is focused on the biases that exist when eyewitnesses are identifying potential suspects. The intended audience of the paper is policymakers in the justice system and police who are involved in eyewitness identification. The article is also intended to provide help to other researchers by reviewing the current information on the topic. The review will provide insight into how the race and ethnicity of both the suspect and witness can affect the accuracy of identification. The authors indicate that racial bias is one of the reasons why there are inaccurate eyewitness identifications. The paper will help in providing a background on the bias that exists during identification exercises. The study will also assist in understanding the impact of inaccurate eyewitness identifications for both the suspect and the witness. In most cases, the suspect suffers significantly from inaccurate reports. Therefore, the paper will help in analyzing racial bias in eyewitness identification.
Erickson, W. B., Wright, A., & Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2022). “He was the one with the gun!” Associative memory for white and black faces seen with weapons. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7(1), 8.
The authors have a background in research and are based in different universities in the United States. The article indicates that the writers were involved fully in the design and planning of the experiments in the study. The study was focused on studying whether stereotypes that associate black people with guns and violence and white people with positive things can affect the recognition memory of eyewitnesses. The intended audiences are policymakers, jurists, and other researchers. The authors adopted a primary hypothesis that stated that older adults’ associative memory deficit would be reduced under black/weapon pairings. The primary hypothesis was not confirmed as younger adults and older adults who were white exhibited an own-race recognition bias. The results also indicated that older adults had a negative bias toward black faces. This shows that suspects who are black may be viewed as having committed a crime by an eyewitness who is white and elderly. This article will be useful in analyzing the impact of one’s own race and other race biases on eyewitness identification accuracy.
Frumkin, L. A., & Stone, A. (2020). Not all eyewitnesses are equal: Accent status, race, and age interact to influence evaluations of testimony. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 18(2), 123-145.
The authors have a background in research on psychology and the criminal justice system. This is essential as it provides the study with credibility and ensures that the paper can be used by other researchers. The study seeks to measure how factors such as race, age, and accent status can impact decision-making in the criminal justice system. The intended audience is the criminal justice system, as there are areas presented in the study that needs to be addressed. The study shows that white eyewitnesses were viewed more positively than their black counterparts. The findings also show that young black eyewitnesses were preferred to older black witnesses. The results indicate that the process of eyewitness identification is significantly affected by stereotypes that have an impact on accuracy. These stereotypes have a significant impact on the delivery of justice as the bias can impact the decisions made by various players in the justice system. The paper will be essential in enhancing understanding of the way stereotypes affect the process of eyewitness identification, thereby reducing accuracy.
Singh, B., Mellinger, C., Earls, H. A., Tran, J., Bardsley, B., & Correll, J. (2022). Does cross-race contact improve cross-race face perception? A meta-analysis of the cross-race deficit and contact. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(6), 865-887.
The authors are all situated at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, and have published various articles on diverse topics. Their background in research and education enhances the credibilitwhichy of the findings. The intended audience for the study is policymakers and entities involved in the eyewitness identification process. The study seeks to understand whether contact with racial out-groups reduces the cross-race recognition deficit (CRD). CRD is the tendency for people to recognize same-race (ingroup) faces more accurately than cross-race (outgroup) faces. The study finds that contact with racial outgroups at a younger age can help reduce CRD. This shows that racial bias develops as a result of the environment in that people find themselves. The paper will be essential in providing a background on how racial bias develops and what can be done to eliminate the issue. The study will also help in understanding how racial bias affects the process of eyewitness identification.
Colloff, M. F., Flowe, H. D., Smith, H. M., Seale-Carlisle, T. M., Meissner, C. A., Rockey, J. C., Pande, B., Kujur, P., Parveen, N., Chandel, P., Singh, M. M., Pradhan, S., & Parganiha, A. (2022). Active exploration of faces in police lineups increases discrimination accuracy. American Psychologist, 77(2), 196.
The authors of the article have a background in university research, which enhances the findings of the scholarly journal. The paper focuses on the role played by the active exploration of faces on the accuracy of the eyewitness results. The intended audience is policy developers who are interested in enhancing the way police conduct lineups. The article can be useful to other researchers that intend to study the use of interactive procedures in witness identifications. The paper will be helpful in the research as it shows the accuracy when participants are provided with suspects of the same and different races. The results show that the interactive lineups reduced witness identification discrimination accuracy in both instances. The authors adopted a novel interactive lineup procedure that provided participants with the ability to view the images in the lineup from different angles. The result is that the model improved the witness discrimination accuracy.
Susa, K. J., Gause, C. A., & Dessenberger, S. J. (2019). Matching faces to ID photos: the influence of motivation on cross-race identification. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 15(1), 86-96.
The authors of the article have a background in teaching and research at California State University, Bakersfield, and Washington University, St. Louis. Their background in research enhances the credibility of the findings and provides a crucial understanding of the aspects of cross-race identification. The study seeks to determine whether perceiver motivation moderates the cross-race effect in face-matching accuracy. The intended audience is the criminal justice systems and officers who are tasked with processing eyewitness identification. The results of the study show that perceiver motivation is critical in enhancing accuracy, especially for other-race faces. This shows that eyewitness race affects the ability to identify a suspect when they are of the same race. The study results will be useful in highlighting the influences of race during eyewitness identification. The study results will provide insight into possible research directions.