Abstract
One of the reasons why four men on trial at the Old Bailey in London were acquitted of serious conspiracy and petrol bomb charges some years back in 1983 was, according to the Sunday Times report, that “Eight policemen had compiled their prosecution notes together in a police canteen, in apparent ignorance of rules which forbid joint preparation.” (Shirley, 1983). Although the judge may have thought that the police canteen was an inappropriate venue for the meeting (in fact, the canteen was almost certainly the only room in the Station capable of accommodating eight policemen in any degree of comfort), the main point at issue, of course, was not the venue for their meeting, but the collaboration, especially of such a seemingly large number of collaborators. In this chapter we would like to describe a series of experiments that have systematically explored the effects on the quality of testimony of having two or more witnesses, including police officers, testify to what they have heard.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bartlett, E C. (1932). Remembering: a study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Bass V., R. (1953). All England Law Reports, 1, 1064–1068.
Clark, N. K. (1987). The analysis and prediction of individual and group remembering. Ph. D. thesis, University of Kent.
Clark, N. K., Stephenson, G.M.,, Kniveton, B.K. (1986). Script-writers or story-tellers? The consequences of divergent recall strategies for police officers. Paper presented at B.P.S. Annual Conference, April, Sheffield.
Clark, N.K., Stephenson, G.M.,, Rutter, D. R. (1986). Memory for a complex social discourse: the analysis and prediction of individual and group recall. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 295–313.
Edwards, D., , Middleton, D. (in press). Joint remembering: constructing an account of shared experience. Discourse Processes, 19,423–459.
Hartwick, J., Sheppard, B. H.,, Davis, J.H. (1982). Group remembering: research and implications. In R. A. Guzzo (Ed.), Improving group decision making in organisations (pp. 41–72 ). London: Academic.
Hollin, C. R., Clifford, B. R. (1983). Eyewitness testimony: the effects of discussion on recall accuracy and agreement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 13, 234–244
Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Martin, J. (1982). Stories and scripts in organizational settings. In A. H. Hastorf A.M. Isen (Eds.), Cognitive social psychology. Oxford: Elsevier.
Myers, D. G. (1983). Polarising effects of social interaction. In J.H. Davis G. StockerKreichgauer (Eds.), Group decision processes. London: Academic.
Perlmutter, H. V. (1953). Group memory of meaningful material. Journal of Psychology, 35, 361–370.
Shirley, J. (1983, August 14). How the police beat the police. Sunday Times, p. 4
Steiner, I.D. (1972). Group process and productivity. London: Academic.
Stephenson, G.M., Wagner, W. (1988). Origins of the misplaced confidence effect in collaborative recall. Applied Cognitive Psychology ( forthcoming)
Stephenson, G.M., Brandstätter, H.,, Wagner, W. (1982). An experimental study of social performance and delay on the testimonial validity of story telling. European Journal of Social Psychology, 13, 175–191.
Stephenson, G.M., Abrams, D., Wagner, W., Wade, G. (1986). Partners in recall: collaborative order in the recall of a police interrogation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 341–343.
Vansina, J. (1973). Oral tradition: a study in historical methodology. Harmondsworth: Pengu in Books.
Wegner, D.M. (1986). Transactive Memory. In B. Mullen, G. R. Goethals (Eds.), General theories of group behaviour. New York: Springer.
Wegner, D.M., Guiliano, T., Hertel, P. T. (1985). Cognitive interdependence in close relationships. In W. Ickes (Ed.), Compatible and incompatible relationships (pp. 253 —276). New York: Springer
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stephenson, G.M., Clark, N.K., Kniveton, B.H. (1989). Collaborative Testimony by Police Officers: A Psycho-legal Issue. In: Wegener, H., Lösel, F., Haisch, J. (eds) Criminal Behavior and the Justice System. Research in Criminology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-86017-1_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-86017-1_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-86019-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-86017-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive