Considerations for experts in assessing the credibility of recovered memories of child sexual abuse
The importance of maintaining a case-specific focus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12434826 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laurence Alison (0000-0003-2459-0976), Mark R Kebbell (0000-0003-0660-2902), Mark Kebbell, Penney Lewis (0000-0002-7217-5884) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 419-441 |
| Publication date | 2006-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychology Public Policy and Law (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1076-8971 • E-ISSN: 1939-1528 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1037/1076-8971.12.4.419 |
| OpenAlex | W2099678888 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 13 |
In this article, the authors argue that a variety of psychological factors stand in the way of providing expert advice to the courts in terms of assessing the credibility of a complainant's account of sexual abuse when there is a significant delay in reporting. These include difficulties in assessing (a) the complainant's account of how he or she claims to have remembered or forgotten the abuse, (b) whether (and how) the claim of abuse originated within a therapeutic setting, and (c) the difficulty of generalizing from empirical evidence. It is argued that all of these issues can be more easily avoided if experts maintain a case-specific focus. In this article, the authors review both the psychological and legal controversies surrounding the false-recovered memory debate, discuss how courts approach the admissibility and use of recovered memory testimony, and conclude that expert witnesses should carefully consider the above points before drawing general conclusions from the literature and applying them to individual cases
Child abuse · Child sexual abuse · Credibility · Developmental psychology · Focus (optics · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Sexual abuse · Child Abuse and Trauma · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Medicine · Memory Processes and Influences · Psychology · Social Psychology
The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior.
A dual representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder.
The Formation of False Memories
The Recovered Memory/False Memory Debate
Reflections on Countertransference in Psychoanalytic Work with Child Survivors of the Shoah
Recovery and verification of memories of childhood sexual trauma
Criteria for judging the admissibility of eyewitness testimony of long past events
"Memory work" and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse
Prosecuting and Defending Rape
Retrieved memories of childhood sexual abuse
Behavioral sciences and the law
The academic and the practitioner
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,29 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2015 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |