Stopping crime? The effect of crime re-enactments on eyewitness memory

Abstract

Crime re-enactments broadcast on television encourage witnesses to provide information regarding unsolved crimes. However, given that eyewitness memory can be altered through exposure to post-event information, it is possible that crime re-enactments may influence the memory of eyewitnesses. The current studies examined the effects of crime reenactments on eyewitness memory. In two experiments (Experiment 1 with a distractor task, Experiment 2 without a distractor task), participants were shown one of three versions of a crime video that differed in their ambiguity. One week later half of the participants viewed a crime re-enactment. All participants then completed a guided free-and cued-recall task regarding the original event. Across both studies, exposure to the re-enactment did not improve eyewitness memory; instead, participants who viewed the re-enactment were more likely to accept the misinformation in the re-enactment. The findings shed light on potential issues with using crime re-enactments to elicit eyewitness accounts.

The Portrayal of Violence in the Re-enactment-based Crime Shows: A Case Study of Jurm Bolta Hai and Crime Patrol

“…Different schools of thought look at these shows from different perspectives. Few favour the shows and count the different reasons, but others criticize them too (Bhatti, Iftikhar and Mahmood, 2020;Qazi, Qayyoum and Siraj, 2021;Cullen, Paterson & Golde, 2021). Beam (2011) claimed that a crime reenactment show -America's Most Wanted (AMW) -aired in 1988 helped the law enforcement agencies to capture the different criminals and fugitives.…”