Eyewitness testimony is testimony given in court or as part of a police investigation by a person who has witnessed a crime or misdemeanor (Loftus, 2003 ). Eyewitness accounts rely largely on human memory. “Given the complex interplay of processes of perception, memory, judgment, social influence, and communication that lead to an eyewitness account of what happened, it should not be surprising that such testimony is often an erroneous version of the original event (Wells, 1987). )." Eyewitness testimony plays a complex role in the criminal justice system. In some cases, a jury may tend to evaluate what witnesses say more favorably and associate the level of confidence with the accuracy of their identification before a court (Bradfield & Wells 2000).Causes of false eyewitness testimonyOne of the main reasons why errors in eyewitness testimony are the leading cause of wrongful convictions is that they can be used as one of the most common pieces of evidence powerful evidence presented in court against a defendant (Wise, Fishman & Safer, 441). In some cases, eyewitness testimony may be the only or primary evidence presented. This adds to the eyewitness testimony dilemma, as it is difficult not to. take their word for it. “For example, a 1987 study estimates that there are 77,000 criminal trials each year in the United States, with the primary or only evidence against a defendant being eyewitness testimony” (Wise, Fishman & Safer). , 442). There are many reasons why eyewitnesses may make mistakes in their accounts. One is the error of human memory, humans make mistakes, their memory is not perfect. Another reason is eyewitness bias, which states that an eyewitness is influenced by factors such as: their expectations, attitudes, knowledge... middle of paper ... what happens when they contacted each other? » Depending on which adjective she used, she would get a wide variety of responses. When she used the adjective broken, they said on average 40.8 miles per hour, when contacted at 31.8 miles per hour (Loftus, 2003). This relates to eyewitness accounts because depending on how the questions are approached, it can affect someone's response to what happened in the situation. This method is now widely used by law enforcement when interviewing an eyewitness.ConclusionsDue to the complexity of eyewitness testimony, it can be extremely difficult for eyewitnesses to choose who they consider to be the perpetrator. Previous research studies argue that the way questions are handled can affect witnesses' responses. This also confirms that eyewitnesses will likely choose someone even if the individual is not 100% sure of the identity of the offender..