Alibis and Corroborators: Psychological, Criminological, and Legal Perspectives

You don’t know: knowledge as supportive alibi evidence

“…By doing so, they influence subsequent procedures. Nevertheless, the use of police detectives in alibi evaluation research is rare (Culhane & Hosch, 2012;Dysart & Strange, 2012;Eastwood et al, 2016;Nieuwkamp et al, 2018) compared to the body of alibi research (for an overview see: Behl and Kienzle (2022)). Research shows that important differences exist between students and police detectives in alibi evaluation.…”

“…In proven wrongful conviction cases, where an alibi was presented by the defendant, the alibi was often not believed (about 70% of the first 250 DNA exoneration cases in the USA; Garrett, 2011). Most of the wrongful convicted people presented an alibi that was supported by no or weak evidence (Cardenas et al, 2022;Wells, 1998). These results illustrate that the strength of the supportive evidence plays an prominent role in determining the alibi believability and ultimately whether the court believes that the suspect is innocent or guilty.…”

“…Previous research on alibi evaluation has concluded that the presence and strength of supportive evidence, categorised as physical or witness evidence, are the most important factors in determining alibi believability (e.g. Allison, 2022;Pozzulo et al, 2015). In the alibi literature, however, not all types of supportive evidence are captured.…”