The Role of Malingering and Expectations in Claims of Crime‐Related Amnesia

Oorsouw, Kim van; Cima, Maaike

doi:10.1002/9780470713082.ch8

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The evidence from a recent volume of expert analyses of the literature on offenders' memories of violent crimes (Christianson, 2007) strongly suggest that even if the memory of the crime in a few cases may be impaired (Porter, Woodworth, & Doucette, 2007), the evidence support the trauma superiority argument, that is enhanced memory for traumatic events. The conclusion that can be drawn from the experts' analyses is that the overwhelming majority of claims of amnesia for committed murder, in cases where alcohol or drug intoxication can be ruled out, are fake, representing cases of malingering (Merckelbach & Christianson, 2007;Van Oorsouw & Cima, 2007). Interestingly, Magnussen et al (2006), who asked the same question to a representative sample of 1000 adult Norwegian citizens, found that the belief in the reality of amnesia for committed murder was negatively correlated with the number of years of formal education; less than 20% of the respondents with elementary school believed the perpetrators were telling the truth, a figure raising to about 45% for respondents with university backgrounds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Psychologists Know and Believe about Memory: A Survey of Practitioners

Magnussen

Melinder

2011

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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We surveyed 858 licensed psychologists, members of the Norwegian Psychological Association, about their knowledge and beliefs about human memory. The results were compared to the results of parallel surveys of legal professionals and lay persons, and evaluated in the light of the results of current memory science. The results indicate that psychologists are not memory experts qua psychologists; as a group, psychologists do not score above the level of knowledge of lay persons or trial judges on issues of eyewitness memory, and a substantial minority of the sample of respondents harbours scientifically unproven ideas of memory. The implications of these findings for psychological practice, with special reference to the court room, are briefly discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Psychologists Know and Believe about Memory: A Survey of Practitioners

Magnussen

Melinder

2011

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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“…Die Forschung zu Amnesien bei Gewaltdelikten habe bislang kaum mehr zeigen können, als dass Alkoholintoxikation manchmal mit geäußerten Gedächtnisproblemen assoziiert ist. Obwohl dieser Zusammenhang heute als gesichert gilt [50], darf darauf aufbauend nicht geschlussfolgert werden, dass Alkohol auch als ursächlicher Faktor für tatbezogene Amnesien fungiert [51]. Vielmehr muss davon ausgegangen werden, dass es äußerst unwahrscheinlich ist, dass eine geltend gemachte tatbezogene Amnesie tatsächlich durch eine Alkoholintoxikation zur Tatzeit erklärt werden kann.…”

Section: Amnestische Probleme Aufgrund Intoxikationunclassified

Tatbezogene Amnesien - authentisch oder vorgetäuscht?

Giger

Merten²

2011

Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr

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In the context of criminal forensic evaluations, experts are often confronted with the problem of offenders' claims of crime-related amnesia. Because of the far-reaching legal consequences of the expert opinion, the nature of the suspected memory disorder has to be investigated with special care and due consideration of differential diagnoses. While the diagnosis of organic amnesia is comparatively easy to make, the same is not true for dissociative amnesia. Despite existing theoretical explanations such as stress, peritraumatic dissociation or repression, to date there is no sound, scientifically based and empirically supported explanation for the occurrence of genuine, non-organic crime-related amnesia. In the criminal context of claimed amnesia, secondary gain is usually obvious; thus, possible malingering of memory loss has to be carefully investigated by the forensic expert. To test this hypothesis, the expert has to resort to methods based on a high methodological level. The diagnosis of dissociative amnesia cannot be made by mere exclusion of evidence for organic amnesia; instead, malingering has to be ruled out on an explicit basis.

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The Memory-Undermining Effect of Simulated Crime-Related Amnesia and Its Legal Implications: a Review

Mangiulli

Riesthuis

Otgaar

2021

Psychol. Inj. and Law

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Pretending to suffer from amnesia for a mock crime has been shown to lead to memory impairments. Specifically, when people are asked to give up their role of simulators, they typically recall fewer crime-relevant details than those who initially confess to a crime. In the current review, we amassed all experimental work on this subject and assessed the characteristics of the memory-undermining effect of simulated amnesia for a crime procedure (i.e., crime stimuli, simulating amnesia instructions, memory tests, and memory outcomes). We specifically focused on the effect that crime-related amnesia claims may have on offenders’ final memory reports. Our review showed that simulators who initially claimed amnesia might paradoxically experience some sort of forgetting pertaining to crime-related information. This issue could likely lead to legal complications that need be taken into account in crime-related amnesia cases.

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The Role of Malingering and Expectations in Claims of Crime‐Related Amnesia

Cited by 3 publications

References 47 publications

What Psychologists Know and Believe about Memory: A Survey of Practitioners

What Psychologists Know and Believe about Memory: A Survey of Practitioners

Tatbezogene Amnesien - authentisch oder vorgetäuscht?

The Memory-Undermining Effect of Simulated Crime-Related Amnesia and Its Legal Implications: a Review

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