Confirmation Bias Essay

Confirmation Bias When an investigation for a case begins, the law enforcement is trying to gather the most evidence that will help in solving the case. This could include many things such as physical evidence or eyewitness testimonies. Sometimes making the legal system unfavorable at times for many reasons such as, evidence getting lost or destroyed or the eye witnesses not being able to remeber correctly. The public and the law enforcers are constantly looking for new ways to improve the criminal justice system as times goes on and change. This paper will help to understand some changes that can happen to improve confirmation bias and how to implement these changes into the criminal justice system. The psychology group has much to offer to the legal systems, with their extensive background. Sometimes it can be difficult to find psychology professionals that are passionate about helping improve …show more content…
Confirmation bias can be found in many stages of the investigative process. This is when one seeks or interprets evidence in ways that are in favor of existing beliefs, expectations or a hypothesis. (Nickerson, 1998). Confirmation bias can have two ways of going about it in an investigation one way is that you select information based on what your thoughts, or opinions line up with or are biased towards the evidence that is already available (Ask & Granhag, 2005). The issue of confirmation bias is very important because it can happen even in our day to day lives but when it is in the legal system it can be very dangerous to the person that is in the hot seat. Confirmation bias can lead to things such as a false confession or a wrong eyewitness identification. If the police officer thinks the suspect is guilty even before conducting the interview process, they will most likely seek information that is incriminating towards the suspect (Hill, McGeorge, & Memon,