The eyewitness’ evidence is as important as it is controversial in criminal procedure yet it is more of a psychological issue than a legal one. One of the most important and controversial procedures under eyewitness evidence relate to the conducting of suspect line-up identification. This entails a process where an eyewitness picks a suspect from a group of congruent suspects either presented physically or using pictorial evidence (Steblay et al , 2011) . The controversial aspects of these process relate to its accuracy, premised on the reliability and validity of the process. Historically, there are two main ways that this process has been varied out. The first is the sequential process where the pictures or actual suspected are presented to the eyewitness one at a time with the eye witness required to give a positive or negative response about whether or not that is the suspect. The second is the simultaneous process where all the pictures or suspects are presented contemporaneously, and the witness asked to pick the suspect. Research on the validity and reliability of the two processes has been based both on whether the process can be accurately repeated as well as whether or not the process is right with the results of each research process being inconclusive thus creating the need for further research (Wells et al. , 2015) . This research paper delves into the research that has already been carried out relating to the comparison between the sequential and simultaneous processes of suspect lineup identification as well as which of the two is deemed to be more effective.
Background
Compared to criminal procedure, forensic science is a relatively new concept. Therefore, witnesses have formed the basis for the criminal procedure for as long as law enforcement has endured. It is with the advent for formal law enforcement however that the concept of a procedural police lineup developed. Sequential and simultaneous lineups developed at the same time thus the dispute about which of the two is more accurate has endured for as long as the police lineups have been conducted (Wells et al. , 2015) . When conducted properly and devoid of any corruption and malice, a police lineup becomes purely an issue of cognitive processes of recording and rewinding of memory thus making its research purely a psychological issue. It is on this basis that most research relating to the instant topic has been conducted by leading psychologists . Key among these researchers is Iowa State University’s expert psychologist Dr. Gary L. Wells who is renowned as an expert in the field. Criminal procedure adheres to the Blackstone’s formulation where convicting a singular innocent person is considered a major flaw in any system (De Keijser et al. , 2014) . Therefore, albeit some essence of congruency in reliability and accuracy has been realized between the sequential and simultaneous process continued and more definitive research is being undertaken in this field to ensure the determination of which among the two processes is more accurate.
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Overview of Research Methods and Results in the Subject Area
Due to the sensitive nature of the criminal procedure and the legal as well as ethical complexities, observatory research processes such as ethnography cannot be applied . Research on the subject is therefore carried out using virtual crime scenarios multimedia content such a video designed to mimic actual crimes (Amendola & Wixted, 2015; Wixted et al. , 2014) . The research sample group is made to watch a video of the virtual crime then mock police lineups are conducted with a segment of the group using the virtual lineup and the other segment the simultaneous lineup. Reliability is tested through assessing whether each process can produce similar results when used repeatedly. Validity on the other part is tested by checking whether the sample group members pick the right person committing a crime in the videos during . Indeed, it is based on such research that by West Yorkshire Police developed the Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording (VIPER) that is used by several police departments to conduct actual police lineups . The trends of results in most lineup research have however been extremely confusing since the simultaneous process has been found to be the most valid yet the sequential result found to be most reliable (Amendola & Wixted, 2015) .
Example of an Actual Research Process
Steblay, Dysart, & Wells, (2011) is one of the most renowned research on the reliability and validity of the sequential and simultaneous processes. This research was conducted to settle the issue of which of the two processes is superior to the other. The researcher reviewed a total of 72 different tests carried out by 23 different teams of experts drawn from the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany and South Africa. This culminated in study trends for 13,143 different individuals. The difference researcher brought together the skills from all over the world and enabled what is perhaps the most advanced and comprehensive study on the particular subject. The results, however, were as complex and as non-definitive as all the other research conducted before. They credited the simultaneous process with reliability as the ability to pick the right, or the wrong suspect was much higher under this process. However, whenever a suspect was picked under the sequential method, there was the much higher propensity of the suspect being guilty than when picked under the simultaneous process (Steblay et al. , 2011) .
Practical Application
In criminal procedure, a suspect lineup ought to accomplish two main obligations. The first is to confirm if the witness is valid and credible and thus will not create a miscarriage of justice situation. The second use of the lineup is to pick the suspect . As derived from the Blackstone’s formulation, the true test of a police suspect lineup procedure should not be based on how frequently the suspect is able to pick the right suspect but rather on whether the suspect picked is the actual one (De Keijser et al. , 2014) . It is human nature to desire to do good. Thus most eye witnesses are eager to identify the villain and assist in securing a conviction. The simultaneous method gives all the available alternatives and gives the witness the option of picking the most probable suspect as opposed to the right suspect. In a sequential process, however, the witness will only look at one probable suspect at a time and determine whether or not this is the suspect or not. This creates a higher possibility of the entire process failing absolutely with not suspect being picked or the right suspect only being picked (Willmott & Sherreds, 2016; Wixted et al. , 2014) . As long as police suspect lineups are meant for use in the criminal procedure, therefore, the sequential method should be preferred due to its superiority as outlined above.
Conclusion
The instant topic creates a unique scenario where quantitative research, conducted properly and repeatedly produces an inconclusive result. Indeed, the only way to correctly decide between which of the two processes is more accurate is to analyses the research results from the perspective of criminal procedure and applicable laws. It is from this perspective that the sequential method has to be considered as superior to the simultaneous method. This is because the main focus of criminal procedure is to avoid a miscarriage of justice through convicting innocent people over and above solving cases. From a psychological perspective, both processes enable a witness to remember the suspect they saw commit a crime and identify them. The sight of the suspect triggers remembrance of the event and causes identification. However, the simultaneous process has the limitation of giving too much power to the witness who when unable to pick the right suspect will make what seems to be the right choice thus creating a higher propensity for error. This makes the process less fit for criminal procedure in spite of its otherwise superiority from the perspective of reliability.
References
Steblay, N. K., Dysart, J. E., & Wells, G. L. (2011). Seventy-two tests of the sequential lineup superiority effect: A meta-analysis and policy discussion. Psychology, Public Policy, And Law , 17 (1), 99-139. doi:10.1037/a0021650
Wells, G. L., Steblay, N. K., & Dysart, J. E. (2015). Double-blind photo lineups using actual eyewitnesses: An experimental test of a sequential versus simultaneous lineup procedure. Law and Human Behavior , 39 (1), 1
Willmott, D., & Sherretts, N. (2016). Individual differences in eyewitness identification accuracy between sequential and simultaneous line-ups: consequences for police practice and jury decisions. Current Issues in Personality Psychology , 4 (4), 228-239
Amendola, K. L., & Wixted, J. T. (2015). No possibility of a selection bias, but direct evidence of a simultaneous superiority effect: a reply to Wells et al. Journal of Experimental Criminology , 11 (2), 291-294
Wixted, J. T., Gronlund, S. D., & Mickes, L. (2014). Policy regarding the sequential lineup is not informed by probative value but is informed by receiver operating characteristic analysis. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 23 (1), 17-18
De Keijser, J. W., de Lange, E. G., & van Wilsem, J. A. (2014). Wrongful convictions and the Blackstone ratio: An empirical analysis of public attitudes. Punishment & Society , 16 (1), 32-49
