Recent legal research indicates that incorrect identification is a major factor in many miscarriages (失败) of justice. It also suggests that identification of people by witnesses in a courtroom is not as (1) as commonly believed. Recent studies do not support the (2) of faith judges, jurors, lawyers and the police have in eyewitness evidence.
The Law Commission recently published an educational paper, "Total Recall— The Reliability of Witness (3) ", as a companion guide to a proposed code of evidence. The paper finds that commonly held (4) about how our minds work and how well we remember are often wrong. But while human memory is (5) to change, it should not be underestimated.
In court witnesses are asked to give evidence about s, and judges and juries (6) its reliability. The paper points out that memory is complex, and the reliability of any person’s recall must be assessed (7) . Both common sense and research say memory (8) over time. The accuracy of recall and recognition are (9) their best immediately (10) encoding the information, declining at first rapidly, then gradually. The longer the delay, the more likely it is that information obtained after the will interfere (11) the original memory, which reduces (12) .
The paper says (13) interviews or media reports can create such (14) . "People are particularly susceptible to having their memories (15) when the passage of time allows the original memory to (16) , and will be most susceptible if they repeat the (17) as fact."
Witnesses may see or read information after the , then (18) it to produce something (19) than what was experienced, significantly reducing the reliability of their memory of an or offender, "Further, witnesses may strongly believe in their memories, even though aspects of those memories are (20) false.\