By Laura Cummings
At a time where shows like CSI and Law & Order are at the top of television ratings, it’s no wonder the psychology and criminal justice fields are popular choices for students.
And Joanna Pozzulo, a psychology professor at Carleton University, understands why people catch the bug.
She was attending York University when she realized her deep love for the subject during a lecture about how the wording of a question can influence the answer.
“If you ask an eyewitness ‘How fast was the car going when it smashed into the other vehicle?’ you get a much higher estimated rate of speed than you do if you ask ‘How fast was the car going when it bumped into the other vehicle?’ Wow, I thought, it doesn’t get any better than this.”
In a previous interview, Pozzulo explained her research in forensic psychology as the “application of psychological knowledge to issues in the criminal justice system.” In one study, Pozzulo and a student published findings in the Legal and Criminological Psychology journal about the reliability of eyewitness testimonies during court cases.
Their research found that even minimal changes in appearance of the accused – such as longer hair – can have a serious impact on the capacity of eyewitnesses to correctly identify a suspect.
“Witnesses do make mistakes,” Pozzulo said, adding that incorrect eyewitness identification is “the leading cause of wrongful conviction.”
Her research found that 65 per cent of adult and 48 per cent of child eyewitnesses accurately fingered the accused when there was no change in appearance. Only 22 per cent of adult and 16 per cent of child eyewitnesses were able to do so after the suspect changed hairstyles.
“It seems appearance changes that are fairly easy to achieve are sufficient to allow a culprit to go unidentified, presenting a serious challenge to the criminal justice system and society,” Pozzulo added.
With a lab funded and furnished by the Canada Foundation for Innovation to conduct her research, this is only the beginning.
“I’m always asking what we can do to make the system better, to decrease the problems and increase the accuracy of testimony.”