Kindle Price:	$11.99
Sold by:	Macmillan Price set by seller.

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial by [Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Katherine Ketcham]

Follow the Authors

Katherine Ketcham

Elizabeth Loftus

Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial Kindle Edition

by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus (Author), Katherine Ketcham (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 92 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$29.99

$3.25

Paperback

"Please retry"

$22.84

$16.74

$1.73

Kindle
$11.99 Read with Our Free App
Hardcover
$29.99

22 Used from $3.25 4 New from $29.99 1 Collectible from $29.99
Paperback
$22.84

39 Used from $1.73 16 New from $16.74

"The study of memory had become my specialty, my passion. In the next few years I wrote dozens of papers about how memory works and how it fails, but unlike most researchers studying memory, my work kept reaching out into the real world. To what extent, I wondered, could a person's memory be shaped by suggestion? When people witness a serious automobile accident, how accurate is their recollection of the facts? If a witness is questioned by a police officer, will the manner of questioning alter the representation of the memory? Can memories be supplemented with additional, false information?"

The "passion" Loftus describes in the lines above led her to a teaching career at the University of Washington and, perhaps more importantly, into hundreds of courtrooms as an expert witness on the fallibility of eyewitness accounts. As she has explained in numerous trials, and as she convincingly argues in this absorbing book, eyewitness accounts can be and often are so distorted that they no longer resemble the truth.

Print length

309 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

St. Martin's Press
Publication date

June 2, 2015
File size

950 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus
170
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $11.99
Mark Pendergrast
37
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Lynn Crook
16
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $8.99

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, is also the author of Witness for the Defense and Eyewitness Testimony.

Katherine Ketcham is also the co-author of Under the Influence, The Spirituality of Imperfection, Beyond the Influence, The Power of Empathy, and other books. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Witness for the Defense is an important book.” ―The New York Times

“An intriguing and disturbing work in which forensic psychologist Loftus, a specialist on memory, examines the fallibility of eyewitness testimony in criminal cases . . . A fascinating examination of human memory, with troubling implications for the American criminal-justice system.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Highly recommended for the general public and scholars interested in whether justice is served in the criminal justice system.” ―Library Journal

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00XHMGAJ8
Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press; Reprint edition (June 2, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 2, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 950 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 309 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0312055374

Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,723 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #24 in Legal Witnesses
- #81 in Criminal Law Evidence
- #162 in Law Witnesses

Customer Reviews:
4.5 92 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Katherine Ketcham
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
I've been writing non-fiction books for 40 years. My first book, "Under the Influence" (co-authored by Jim Milam, Ph.D.) was published in 1981 and my most recent book, "The Only Life I Could Save" about my journey with my son through his addiction and recovery is available on amazon for pre-order (official publication date is April 1, 2018). My books have been published in seventeen foreign languages and have sold nearly 2 million copies.
In 1998 I began volunteering at the Juvenile Justice Center in Walla Walla, leading educational groups and working individually with adolescents in trouble with alcohol and other drugs and their family members. From October 2001 to October 2003, I wrote a bi-monthly newspaper column for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin titled "Straight Talk About Drugs;" in October 2012 I started up this column once again.
In 2003, working with a group of committed parents, I started a parent support group at the Juvenile Justice Center in Walla Walla, which continues to this day. I am also deeply involved in community efforts to develop and expand community-based recovery support services for youth and families. Our grassroots, nonprofit organization, Trilogy Recovery Community, is part of the national recovery movement spearheaded by Faces and Voices of Recovery in Washington, D.C. I retired as Executive Director of Trilogy and now have the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors.
I grew up in New Jersey and graduated from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York with a degree in psychology in 1971. I have lived and worked in Boston, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, San Francisco, Seattle, and Ohio. In 1984, I moved to Walla Walla, Washington with my husband, Patrick Spencer, a professor of geology at Whitman College. We have three children -- Robyn, 36, is a speech pathologist working in the Vancouver, Washington school district; Alison, 34, is a special education teacher in the Seattle School District; and Benjamin, 31, is a writer working for Fresh, a Seattle-based technology firm.
My extended family -- brothers, sisters, cousins, second cousins, and on it goes -- is a great source of joy, along with my many wonderful friends. I love roses and having my hands in the dirt; golf (I get worse every year, a lesson in humility for sure); walks; yoga; reading; and photography. Someday I hope to devote more time to taking portraits of children and families.
See more on the author's page
Elizabeth Loftus
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

92 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Phil

Quotes From the Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 7, 2010

Verified Purchase

Selected Quotes from the Book:

..."our memory can be changed, inextricably altered, in that what we think we know,
what we believe in our hearts, is not necessarily the truth."

"It isn't so astonishing, the number of things that I can remember,
as the number of things I can remember that aren't so." Mark Twain

"When we remember we pull pieces of the past out of some mysterious region of the brain --jagged, jigsaw pieces that we sort and sift, arrange and rearrange until they fit into a pattern that makes sense. The finished project, the memory that seems so clear and focused in our minds, is actually part fact, part fiction, a warped and twisted reconstruction of reality."

Memory starts with the acquisition stage..., the retention stage..., and the retrieval stage...

"Contrary to popular belief, facts don't come into our memory and reside there untouched and unscathed by future events. Instead we pick up fragments and features from our environment and these go into memory where they interact with our prior knowledge and expectations --information that is already stored in our memory. ...think of memory as being an integrative process --a constructive and creative process --rather than a passive recording process such as a video tape."

"It wasn't that he didn't have doubts --no one can know anything for certain."

'Created Memories' "Simply by asking (leading) questions... In this situation, we can see the power of suggestion to induce a memory of something that never actually occurred."

"When you ask leading questions that suggest what the answer is to be, children (and adults) will pick up that information and incorporate it into their memories, and then they will then come to believe that they actually experienced these details when, in fact, they've only been suggested to them."

Once some one's memory has been contaminated, distorted or transformed... it's virtually impossible to tell fact from fantasy because the individual witness now believes in what he or she is saying."

"Is the...memory an original truth, or an after-the-fact truth?"

"...stress is detrimental to mental functioning, the ability to receive and remember details is impaired. ... The more an event is rehearsed, the more confident a person becomes that what she remembers is the the absolute and unequivocal truth."

"And yet the victim couldn't accept the fact that she had made a mistaken ID. She could not bring herself to admit that someone other than Von Williams might have committed this crime." ..."people can become so attached to their memories that even when obvious contradictions and discrepancies are raised, they refuse to change their minds."

"As a witness you will resent any doubt about your memory as an assault on your basic integrity, a presumptuous intrusion on your personality." Judge Jerome Franks in his book: Not Guilty

"...memory is fallible."

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bucherwurm

There Is No Photo Album In The Brain

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 3, 2002

Verified Purchase

Many people think that we store our past visual experiences as intact images in the brain. Research, however, shows that this concept is not accurate. The visual recollection of an event has to be recreated by assembling bits and pieces of memory into a whole picture. Our recollection of events is thus often distorted. A variety of psychological experiments have been conducted that demonstrate this phenomenon. Subjects shown a picture of an office later, when asked to recall the photograph, put items such as bookcases or a calendar in the scene that were not actually there. Other aspects of the office are forgotten.
Elizabeth Loftus, an internationally known expert on memory, applies research and her experience to the topic of eye witness testimony in the legal setting. The book attempts to be both entertaining in its often informal presentation of case histories, and modestly academic in presenting psychological theory and research. The case histories for the most part describe trials in which eyewitness testimony resulted in the conviction of an innocent person. Loftus shows how inaccurate recollections combined with inappropriate police photo and lineup presentations can cause a witness to create false recollections. As a side note the book also shows how fallible juries can be. All in all this book provides further proof that eyewitness testimony is not superior to circumstantial evidence.
My only criticism of this book should probably be directed toward the co-author. This book is oriented toward the general public, and the case descriptions are often fluffed to create the "true crime" approach used by writers in that genre. What I found particularly amusing was that, in a book devoted to the topic of fallible memory, Ms Loftus recalls minute trivia that most of us would normally forget within a day. She relates, for example, that in one case she had just finished eating a breakfast of coffee and wheat toast. The coffee had just been put in front of her when the lawyer for the defendant walked into the restaurant. Beyond this attempt at verisimilitude we are presented with a memory of an extremely inconsequential event -the breakfast, and its delivery timing- ten years after the event.
This book is an important read. It demonstrates vividly the inaccuracies of memory, and it presents the subject in a format that would entertain most courtroom novel fans. Author Loftus has written a variety of books including a recent one -The Myth of Repressed Memory"- that debunks repressed memory. A classic of hers is "Eyewitness Testimony" that is oriented more toward psychological theory and research.

20 people found this helpful

Helpful

OLD1mIKE

Interesting, Informative and Well Written

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

Interesting, informative and well written.

I was originally looking for something more technical but still understandable to the lay reader. Elisabeth Loftus is a cognitive psychologist and expert on memory, including malleability of memory, the misinformation effect, false memories, and recovered memories. This is more Dateline or 20-20. Each chapter detailing a crime with little physical evidence and primarily relying on eye witness testimony. Its hard to believe prosecutors would have brought some of these cases to trial let alone get a conviction. Dr Loftus primarily testified for the defense and used to add balance to the eye witness’s testimony. Memory is malleable. Many things effect what and how we remember. Although the bulk of the book is about the criminal cases she testified in, she details the research used to base her testimonies on. In many ways this was more effective because it give a example of how information derived in research and laboratory studies can be applied to real life cases.

Helpful

Karen Thompson

Witness for the Defense

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

Book arrived as described. Is a great read, my thanks to sender :)

Helpful

John D. Muir

Thanks for the memory

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book, by memory specialist Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, describes a number of the cases in which she was involved to a greater or lesser degree as a specialist witness. The style is informal and narrative rather than dry and technical. It's an interesting read, but I found myself wanting a little more focus on her area of expertise and less on her emotional reaction to the various cases. Those who like true crime stories (I do) will enjoy this book, but someone looking for a more scientific description of memory might want to look at Dr. Loftus' other publications.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Happy Dragon

difficulties with eye witness testimony

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

easy read, informative and useful for a legal practitioner. NOT a scientific text, rather popular psychology, but nonetheless valid.

りむるん

知り合いからの紹介で購入

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on June 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

実際の事件が事細かに感情移入出来るような形で描かれている。
ケースごとに分かれているので読みやすく、翻訳もわかりやすい

Translate review to English

Kindle Customer

You don't want to stop reading

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on May 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

What I most liked was that each chapter was a real case and I couldn't wait to learn how each of them were raised in court.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the justice system and how it can be deceived by believing that an eyewitness testimony is always right.

Kindle-Kunde

A book worth reading

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on May 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is a very readable mixture of two things: Personal experience as an expert witness in American courtrooms and psychological research in universities explained simply. Those unfamiliar with American criminal justice, like me, will gain insights a textbook cannot provide. E.g. I could not imagine an expert witness staying at the home of a defence lawyer on the European continent. Experts are not seen as part of a defence or prosecution team over here, but as impartial helpers to the court. However , it is a bit disappointing that almost all cases are about one problem: Identification by photo and in-person line up. There would probably be many more issues in courtrooms a leading psychologist could comment in. I recommend this book top anyone interested in criminal justice in the US or in forensic psychology and to those likely to serve in a jury.

Superted

Fascinating, a must read book!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

Fascinating information that will surprise you, this gives a new perspective to what people think they saw/heard and how it becomes distorted by the mind adding or filling in bits of info, a must read for anyone who enjoys the oddities and curiosities of the human mind!

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Authors

Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial Kindle Edition

Customers who viewed this item also viewed