The Triad of Bias:How Biases Affect Testimonies, Legal Professionals, and Expert Witnesses in Court

Memory plays an important role in the legal arena. The relevance of this becomes apparent considering that in the lion share of criminal trials, no forensic technical evidence such as finger prints is present. In such cases, triers of fact (e.g., judges) need to rely on testimonies. This implies that testimonies given by witnesses, victims, and/or offenders play a critical role in judicial decision making and are therefore an important subject of research. The pivotal issue surrounding these testimonies is whether they accurately reflect the facts of the case at hand or whether any intentional (lies) or unintentional (false memories) errors have leaked into these statements. Importantly, suboptimal interrogations and interviewing techniques might spoil the testimony of victims needed to bring a case to courts of law.In this research project three key parties operating in the legal system (victims/witnesses/offenders, legal professionals (police etc.), and expert witnesses) are brought together under one empirical umbrella theme called as “bias”. Biases refer to an almost automatic tendency towards a certain decision (confirmation bias). Biased memories and biases in legal professionals will be important topics in this project.

Keywords:Bias Driehoek

Disciplines:Criminology