How Does The Law Treat Repressed Memories

Johnson, R. L. (2016, February 09). How Does the Law Treat Repressed Memories? Retrieved February 18, 2016. Ruth Lee Johnson brings a very important issue to light. She wrote an article about how courts handle repressed memories. Johnson states that according to the APA, “it is not possible to distinguish repressed memories from false ones without corroborating evidence” (par. 2). This brings up a critical issue how could the jury decide if a memory was false or a repressed one that was eventually remembered. According to Johnson, the three stages of memory are encoding, Consolidation/Storage, and retrieval (par. 3) An error at any stage of the memory process can lead to the creation of false memories (par. 4). Johnson suggests that under extremely traumatic events false memories have a significant chance of being formed. The chance that false

This would seem to suggests that the courts would throw out all memories discovered after a certain length of time. However, according to Johnson, “Courts tend to be all over the map” on this issue (par.5). According to Johnson some courts will extend the statute of limitation on some child abuse cases. The reason: there is a high chance that repressed memories will be fully remembered later in life (par. 6) However, some courts will completely reject all memories after a certain length of time as there is a high chance these memories will be false (par 6). Johnson also mentions another opinion. She states that many individuals are of the opinion that if insane individuals can testify then repressed memories of a long repressed event should also be allowed in court. However, psychologists should be brought before the court to explain the validity of the memory described (par. 7). At this point no courts have taken that opinion (par. 8). In conclusion, until the mental health officials can come up