Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

occurs independent of the content of the questions; in

fact, just asking a witness to think repeatedly about an

event can lead to later increases in witness confidence.

Such increases in confidence are problematic because

trial jurors place a great deal of weight on witness

confidence when judging the accuracy of a witness’s

testimony.

Repeated recall of portions of an event can lead to

retrieval-induced forgetting.Many studies in the cog-

nitive literature, some using eyewitness memory para-

digms, have demonstrated that the act of recalling

certain information about an event can actually impair

a person’s performance on a future memory task for

other previously unretrieved items. That is, repeated

questioning about some details of an event (e.g., the

male robber in a bank heist) may make it more diffi-

cult for the witness to recall other details about the

robbery later on (e.g., the female robber who was

waiting outside). Because interviews of eyewitnesses

conducted by the police, investigators, and attorneys

often constitute incomplete retrieval tasks, repeated

questioning of witnesses can lead to retrieval-induced

forgetting that may impair recall later at trial.

Finally, it should be noted that young witnesses,

particularly children, are generally more suggestible

than adult witnesses, and they are especially suscepti-

ble to all the effects of repeated recall discussed here.

In addition, some studies have shown that children

will change their answers to questions that are asked

multiple times, simply because they assume that their

original answers must have been wrong.

John S. Shaw III

See alsoCognitive Interview; Eyewitness Memory; Postevent

Information and Eyewitness Memory

Further Readings

MacLeod, M. (2002). Retrieval-induced forgetting in

eyewitness memory: Forgetting as a consequence of

remembering.Applied Cognitive Psychology,

16,135–149.

Shaw, J. S., III, & McClure, K. A. (1996). Repeated

postevent questioning can lead to elevated levels of

eyewitness confidence. Law and Human Behavior,

20,629–653.

Zaragoza, M. S., & Mitchell, K. J. (1996).

Repeated exposure to suggestion and the creation

of false memories.Psychological Science,

7,294–300.

REPORTINGCRIMES

ANDVICTIMIZATION

Almost all crimes become known to the police because

citizens, usually victims, report them. In this role as

gatekeeper, victims weigh their concerns about injus-

tice, their own security, and the security of the commu-

nity against the costs of reporting the crime, which may

include a belief that the police are unlikely to arrest the

offender or return stolen property and the notion that

involvement in the criminal justice process is time-con-

suming and possibly humiliating. Typically, victims are

more likely to report more serious crimes. The infor-

mation and advice that victims solicit and receive from

others are, often, also important. Just as in the case of

victims, bystanders’ decisions to report criminal events

are frequently subject to the social influence of others.

In the United States, there are more than 23 million

crimes annually—more than 18 million property crimes

and more than 5 million violent crimes. Since 1993,

rates of crime have generally been declining, in part due

to changing demographics (i.e., fewer people in the

most crime-prone ages) but also due to the decline in the

use of some drugs and to improved law enforcement

practices. Although victims are stereotyped as being dis-

proportionately female, White, and older, in fact, there is

an overlap between offenders and victims, such that

both offenders and victims are disproportionately male,

Black, and young. Males are more likely to be victim-

ized by a stranger, whereas females are more likely to be

victimized by someone they know.

Absolute Reporting Rates

Reporting is generally considered by psychologists to

be a type of help-seeking behavior. Most victims of

crime seek help from others, although, depending on

the crime, most do not call the police. Typically, vic-

tims seek help from family and friends, and some may

also seek help from mental health professionals.

Less than half of all crime is reported to the police—

about 47% of violent crimes and about 40% of property

crimes. The biggest single predictor of whether a crime

will be reported is the severity of the offense. About

60% of aggravated assaults, about 40% of simple

assaults, about 55% of burglaries, about 80% of motor

vehicle thefts, and about 30% of thefts are reported to

the police. More generally, reporting is more likely for

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