Subjective assessment of blunt impacts

An important role of an eyewitness to an assault is to effectively quantify the degree of force used; yet evidence of this form is often subjective an d relies on personal opinion. Twelve subjects were asked to strike a load c ell with a wooden bat, using varying degrees of force. The strikes were rec orded by video camera and 50 people observed the video and were asked to gr ade the strikes. On average 44% accurately assessed the severity of the str ikes, whilst 26% over-estimated. Results suggest that the evidence of eyewi tnesses should be treated with caution.