Memory disorder in offenders and victims

Abstract

Historically, amnesia has occupied an important place in the development of the principle of acquittal on the grounds of insanity. Recently the main area of legal controversy has been to do with fitness to plead. Following the Podola case in 1959, the direction of research on this topic was towards an assessment of the genuineness of an amnesia. Now it appears that such an assessment offers little insight into the understanding of the causes and mechanisms of both organic and psychogenic amnesia, the aetiology of which is discussed. Amnesia in subjects accused of crime is most often found in crimes of violence, especially homicide, and may have an organic cause such as a head injury, or a psychogenic cause due to the psychological trauma associated with the violence. Some cases may have a combination of organic and psychogenic causes. Recently there has been greater recognition that victims of crime, and especially of violent crime, can suffer from a memory loss similar to that seen in the perpetrators. It is perhaps in this direction that the way forward lies in understanding the causes of psychogenic amnesia without the hindrance of having to decide whether the amnesia is genuine or not, a task that is fruitless.