EYEWITNESS PSYCHOLOGY AND EXAMINATION TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Eyewitness testimony is an instrument that has an important place in law. The eyewitness’s testimony is critical in terms of clarifying the events and understanding the truth. The examination is crucial to take the witness’s testimony who comes before the judiciary most healthily and reliably. Judges aim to reveal the truth when making their decisions and be fair in doing so. While making decisions, they try to fulfill them with their intelligence, legal education, and judicial duties. Witness psychology and witness statements are other issues that will help judges decide on some cases. The witness’s credibility naturally depends on what he remembers about the crime and the criminal. For this reason, it is necessary to focus on the psychology of the witness. However, the way and method of examining the witness are influential in his answers. From this point of view, the significance of examination techniques, which directly affect the issue of accessing enlightening information about the crime event, emerges. Cross-examination, on the other hand, is a method that lawyers can use to take the statement of the witness. All examination techniques, especially cross-examination, can impact the psychological state of the witness. It is also thought that these techniques and question styles have the power to determine how the witness will respond. In this article, the methods of asking questions to the witness and their results are evaluated in the psychological context, but also the cross-examination techniques are mainly discussed. How the cross-examination methods are applied, what it causes, and the striking effects of cross-examination on the questioned are also evaluated. In this way, the differences between the types of examination and the consequences of cross-examination on witness expression and psychology were revealed.