Beliefs About Factors Affecting the Reliability ofEyewitness Testimony: A Comparison of Judges, Jurorsand the General Public

摘要

We surveyed 164 members of the juror pool of the Court of Appeal and a representative sample of1000 adult Norwegians without juror experience, about their knowledge and beliefs about eyewitnesstestimony, and compared their answers to a prior survey of Norwegian judges. Although the judgeswere somewhat more knowledgeable than jurors and the general public, all groups had limitedknowledge of eyewitness testimony. Juror experience, in terms of number of times serving as juror,did not correlate with eyewitness knowledge. Consistent with this finding, the knowledge scores ofthe jurors were similar to the scores of the general public, tested with an abridged seven-item versionof the questionnaire. Comparisons with the results of surveys conducted in the US, indicate similarlevels of knowledge among law professionals and jurors in the two countries. Increasing theknowledge of eyewitness testimony among the principal participants in the judiciary system maybe an important component of the solution to eyewitness error.