A Study On Eyewitness Identification

As an investigative measure, eyewitness identification has been widely employed in judicial practices. In 2012, identification transcripts was listed as one kind of legal evidences in Criminal Procedural Law. Eyewitness identification plays a significant role in criminal judicial activities. However, lots of misjudged criminal cases are related to misidentification of eyewitnesses. The article mainly researches the problems and influences in eyewitness identification. It consists of four parts:The introduction part introduces the concept, effect and classification of identification. It elaborate the importance of eyewitness identification through relevant data from home and abroad as well as two misjudged criminal cases caused by eyewitness misidentification.Chapter One introduces the factors that affect eyewitness identification accuracy, namely, estimator variables and system variables. Estimator variables, which include perception, memory, age, race, post-event information and so on, are variables that cannot be controlled by judicial system. System variables can be controlled by judicial system, which cover presenting mode and content of queue, instruction, repetitive identification and questioning ways of identification organizers.Chapter Two investigates the current situation of eyewitness identification in China from two aspects including legal provisions and practices. What’s more, it points out some problems as well as shortcomings in practices. For instance, investigators are not distinguished from identification organizers; subjects or related photos are exposed to witnesses before identification; suspects are highlighted unlawfully during identification process; different people identify subjects at the same time; many identification transcripts are nonstandard.Chapter Three proposed relevant suggestions on perfecting witness system, which cover distinguishing investigators from identification organizers, perfecting identification rules, improving ways of identification, normalizing identification transcripts, protecting suspects’ rights and improving judges’ abilities of evaluation, identification and concluding.