![]() ![]() This time, 39 percent of the respondents indicated that such offenders are truthful about their amnesia. More recently, Melinder and Magnussen ( 8) asked 117 psychiatrists and psychologists who served as expert witnesses in Norwegian courts whether or not murderers who report crime-related amnesia are telling the truth about their memory loss. Thirty eight percent of this sample of professionals endorsed the view that murderers who claim crime-related amnesia are honest about the gap in their memory. In a follow-up study, Magnussen and Melinder ( 7) asked 857 Norwegian licensed psychologists, most of them working in the field of clinical psychology, for their opinion about this issue. Thirty nine percent of the respondents opined that such offenders are truthful about their amnesic episode. ![]() ( 6) asked 1,000 Norwegians whether or not murderers who claim amnesia for their offense are telling the truth about their memory loss. It should be noted here that this form of memory loss is not only reported by violent offenders: individuals convicted for sexual and property offenses also claim amnesia for their crimes ( 5).Īpparently, a considerable number of people-both laypersons and professionals-believe that offenders can forget or repress a serious crime that they committed. By and large, it seems that about 20 to 30% of those who have committed violent crimes claim crime-related amnesia ( 4). In this sample, 60 (29%) reported memory loss for their offense. ( 3) studied the case note-notes of 207 individuals sentenced to life imprisonment. ![]() Of the 34 men accused of having committed murder or manslaughter, 9 of them (26%) claimed amnesia for their crime. Several decades later, Taylor and Kopelman ( 2) interviewed 203 men charged with both violent and non-violent offenses. About 70 years ago, Leitch ( 1) found that 16 out of 51 offenders (31%) convicted of homicide reported memory loss for their crime. Randy's case is not unique: a nontrivial percentage of people who are accused or convicted of violent offenses claim crime-related amnesia. During his interrogation, he told the police that, although he did not rule out having killed his girlfriend, he had no memory for this fatal incident whatsoever. Randy was arrested and taken to the police station. The police speeded to Randy's apartment and found his girlfriend lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Randy nodded, upon which his father called the emergency number. Because he was covered in blood, his father asked him if something happened to his girlfriend. A few years ago, 29 year old Randy unexpectedly appeared at the house of his parents. ![]()
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