Answer to Question 1
Show-ups are identifications of a single person and are much less reliable than lineups
because presenting only one person to a witness to identify is more suggestive than
presenting a group of people to choose from. The courts allow show-up
identifications despite their unreliability in three common situations: 1) a witness
accidentally runs into a suspect; 2) a witness identifies a suspect during an
emergency; and 3) a witness identifies a suspect while they are still being pursued by
the police.
Answer to Question 2
Suggestion is particularly powerful, and most threatening to accuracy, after a crime
has been committed. Suggestions that come from others add to what a witness
believes they observe during the crime. These added facts are then mentally stored
in a witness's memory. When the witnesses later on are asked to recall the event at
trial, the witness testifies about the suggested facts as if they were the same as what
the witness had observed himself or herself.
Witnesses think of live lineups and photo lineups as multiple choice tests without a
none of the above choice. They think of showups and single pictures as true or false
tests. Witnesses thus feel like they have to choose the best likeness in a lineup and a
right true or false likeness in the showups. Witnesses feel pressured by the
possibility they might look foolish if they don't know the answer..
The very fact that police have arranged an identification procedure also puts pressure
on witnesses. They believe the police must have found the culprit, or they wouldn't
have gone through the trouble of arranging such a procedure. So witnesses often tell
themselves the culprit has to be there and feel pressured to identify somebody.
Much of the psychological research into eyewitness identifications suggests that
officials should use the mayormaynotbe present instruction. The person
administering the procedure tells a witness before they view the lineup that the suspect
may or may not be present. The research shows that when that instruction is not given
misidentifications are more likely than when it is given. Administrators can bias the
lineup identification even more by telling a witness that police have already found the
perpetrator or know who he is, or they have plenty of evidence against the perpetrator.
Administrators can also give witnesses other verbal and nonverbal cues that may not
be intentional or even done consciously.
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