Characteristics, context and consequences of memory recovery among adults in therapy

1999 ◽  
Vol 175 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Andrews ◽  
Chris R. Brewin ◽  
Jennifer Ochera ◽  
John Morton ◽  
Debra A. Bekerian ◽  
...  

BackgroundThere are concerns that memories recovered during therapy are likely to be the result of inappropriate therapeutic techniques.AimsTo investigate systematically these concerns.MethodOne-hundred and eight therapists provided information on all clients with recovered memories seen in the past three years, and were interviewed in detail on up to three such clients.ResultsOf a total of 690 clients, therapists reported that 65% recalled child sexual abuse and 35% recalled other traumas, 32% started recovering memories before entering therapy According to therapists' accounts, among the 236 detailed client cases very few appeared improbable and corroboration was reported in 41%. Techniques to aid recall were used in 42%, but only in 22% were they used before memory recovery started.ConclusionsSome of the data are consistent with memories being of iatrogenic origin, but other data clearly point to the need for additional explanations.

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-205
Author(s):  
Megan Cleary

In recent years, the law in the area of recovered memories in child sexual abuse cases has developed rapidly. See J.K. Murray, “Repression, Memory & Suggestibility: A Call for Limitations on the Admissibility of Repressed Memory Testimony in Abuse Trials,” University of Colorado Law Review, 66 (1995): 477-522, at 479. Three cases have defined the scope of liability to third parties. The cases, decided within six months of each other, all involved lawsuits by third parties against therapists, based on treatment in which the patients recovered memories of sexual abuse. The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in Hungerford v. Jones, 722 A.2d 478 (N.H. 1998), allowed such a claim to survive, while the supreme courts in Iowa, in J.A.H. v. Wadle & Associates, 589 N.W.2d 256 (Iowa 1999), and California, in Eear v. Sills, 82 Cal. Rptr. 281 (1991), rejected lawsuits brought by nonpatients for professional liability.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-439
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH BAUM ◽  
MICHAEL A. GRODIN ◽  
JOEL J. ALPERT ◽  
LEONARD GLANTZ

More children are being recognized as victims of sexual abuse than in the past. Because pediatricians are often the first professionals to see the victim, they are often also the first to assess and to evaluate the child. Increased diagnoses of child sexual abuse may be the result either of an actual increase in the incidence of child sexual abuse or of heightened recognition. Whichever explanation or combination is correct, it is crucial that pediatricians be aware not only of the issue of child sexual abuse but also of the correct procedures in collecting data that may be used as evidence and in preparing to be a witness in a potential criminal prosecution of the alleged offender.


Author(s):  
Corinne May-Chahal ◽  
Emma Kelly

This chapter reviews what is known about child sexual abuse media, with a particular focus on the abuse of young children (those under the age of 10). Young children are seldom the subject of research on sexual violence, yet the online-facilitated sexual abuse of these children is known to exist. In the past, child sexual abuse has been described as a hidden phenomenon that is made visible through a child's disclosure or evidence in and on their bodies. Online child sexual victimisation (OCSV) experienced by young children is still hidden in this traditional sense but at the same time highly visible through images that are both detached from the child yet traumatically attached through their creation and continued circulation throughout childhood. Indeed, most of what can be known about OCSV and younger children is through analyses of images harvested online and analyses of law enforcement and non-governmental organisation (NGO) image databases. These sources suggest that OCSV involving young children is different from that experienced by those who are older. It more often involves parents, carers, and family members; it is legally and developmentally impossible for children to consent to it; and images and videos of the abuse are more likely to be trafficked.


2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-380
Author(s):  
Susan P. Robbins

Sexual abuse of children has garnered a substantial amount of empirical research, state and federal legislation, and media coverage in the past several decades. This article briefly examines the history of child maltreatment and child sexual abuse (CSA) and societal responses to it. A review of selected articles on CSA that were published since the inception of Families in Society reveals how our knowledge of and ideas about sexual abuse, the perpetrators, responses to abuse allegations, and the Freudian concept of repression have changed over time. The phenomenon of repressed and recovered memories of abuse is also discussed, including the articles that were published in the journal. Despite continued disagreement in the field between researchers and clinicians, a summary is provided detailing points of consensus related to CSA and recovered memories.


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