Unreliable Recovered Memories: Why They Should Not Be Used as Evidence in Court

Abstract

Recovered Memories Are Not Reliable or a Credible Source of Evidence in Court [Name] [University] Outline: Background Adults who claim to remember they had been sexually abused as a child is what came to be known as recovered memories Psychotherapists explain that memories of child abuse get repressed and later get recovered Thesis Statement: Problems with the memory, creation of false memories during intervention, and lack of evidence to back their usefulness makes recovered memories unreliable and should not be presented as a credible source of evidence in court. Problems with memory Repressed memories have become more known as dissociative amnesia (Otgaar, et al., 2019) The therapists have argued that repressed memories could be recovered in adulthood and accurately provide evidence in assault cases It is more probable that repressed memories come from suggestive influences and procedures to create false memories of abuse (Davis & Loftus, 2014). Data suggests that certain aspects of trauma are remembered easily rather than forgotten or pushed away from the conscious mind (Otgaar, et al., 2019) False memories may be created during the care of victims and therapeutic intervention Potentially harmful therapy practices have led to high percentages of adults remembering alleged repressed and recovered memories of abuse (Patihis & Pendergrast, 2018). During the intervention process, details of the abuse and the relationship between the victim and perpetrator change in a child’s memory Therapists who discuss the possibility of repressed abuse are more likely to have patients that remember abuse than those that do not. (Patihis & Pendergrast, 2018). Relying on such information for criminal procedures is misleading and has the potential to affect the evidence brought before the court (Patihis & Pendergrast, 2018). Recovered memories affect credibility of the evidence it provides There is need to ensure that the information use to prosecute perpetrators of abuse is...