The notion of utilizing repressed memories in cases, particularly of sexual abuse, has been a norm in the United States for quite a long time. Children have accused their parents or close relatives of sexual or child abuse based on therapies accorded to them by false therapists or someone close with a view to make them witnesses to crimes that never happened.
Eye witness testimony tends to be highly prioritized in making judgments in criminal and civil cases. The memories presented by such a witness have critical implications for the final judgment and has seen some victims jailed for several years or kept in the death row for crimes that they did not commit. Beth Loftus who has been an expert witness in more than 250 cases posits that the human memory is prone to manipulations and, therefore, cannot be utilized as the sole determinant of the possibility of the occurrence of a crime. She offers an example whereby a woman was denied custody of her girl-child on allegations presented by the child that she had sexually abused her in the early childhood stage (Abramsky, 2004). This girl had received training from her biological father and the second wife to an extent that she presented false memories as if true.
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This case presents the power of false memory in yielding pre-determined outcomes for a victim. Several cases have been determined through the utilization of such memories as jurors pay close attention to eye witness testimony with the view that it is the most critical evidence of the occurrence of a crime. Over-reliance on human memory, as far as eye witness testimony is concerned, creates a myriad of problems as failure to remember facts as it were is not a crime. What falls in the definition of a crime, in alignment with witness testimony, is making a false statement knowingly and while under oath, what is referred to as perjury (Doyle, 2014). False therapists have been utilized in several incidences to create false memories in an individual about a crime(s) that never occurred. These individuals are made to believe that crimes, particularly of abuse, actually occurred and they end up being used as eye witnesses in cases created to achieve a pre-determined outcome for the benefit of one or few individual(s).
References
Abramsky, S. (2004, August 19). Memory and manipulation. LA Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.laweekly.com/2004-08-19/news/memory-and-manipulation/ on 23/8/2017.
Doyle, C. (2014). Perjury under federal law: A brief overview. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved from https://fas.org on 23/8/2017.
