What is a major risk of eyewitness identification, and what procedure improves accuracy?

• A. Misidentification due to memory distortions; use double-blind lineup and proper fillers.
• B. Overreliance on physical appearance; use a single-officer lineup.
• C. Eyewitnesses are always accurate; no special procedure needed.
• D. Lineups should be presented one at a time to avoid confusion.

Answer: (A)

Eyewitness memory is fallible and easily distorted by biases and cues encountered during the identification process. The best way to improve accuracy is to use a lineup procedure that eliminates those biases: a double-blind lineup and properly chosen fillers. When the administrator doesn’t know which person is the suspect, they cannot unintentionally cue the witness or give feedback that sways their choice. And when fillers in the lineup resemble the suspect in appearance, there’s no obvious standout choice, making it less likely the witness selects someone based on a salient trait rather than a true memory. This combination specifically targets the main sources of misidentification—memory distortions and lineup bias—leading to more reliable results. The other options miss the core issue: misidentification risk is driven by memory and bias, not just appearance or the number of officers, and eyewitnesses are not always accurate. Presenting lineups one at a time, while sometimes used, does not alone address the biases that double-blind administration and fair fillers mitigate.