Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:13:40.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Amnesia for criminal offences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Pamela J. Taylor  and
Michael D. Kopelman
Pamela J. Taylor*
Affiliation:
Forensic Section, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London
Michael D. Kopelman
Affiliation:
Forensic Section, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Pamela J. Taylor, Forensic Section, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Nearly 10% of a sample of men charged with a variety of offences claimed amnesia for their offence. The amnesia occurred only among those who had committed violence and was most frequent following homicide. All the amnesics had a psychiatric disorder, four having a primary depressive illness and the remainder being almost equally divided between schizophrenia and alcohol abuse. None of the amnesias had any legal implications. The circumstances of the offences suggested a variety of mechanisms to account for the amnesia, including repression, dissociation and alcoholic black-outs. Psychological defence mechanisms were probably of some importance, even when alcohol was an important factor.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , August 1984 , pp. 581 - 588
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Åsberg, M., Perris, C., Schalling, D. & Sedvall, G. (1978). The CPRS–development and applications of a psychiatric rating scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Suppl. 271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (1976). The Psychology of Memory. Harper & Row: New York.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J. & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 4, 461–571.Google Scholar
Berrington, W. P., Liddell, D. W. & Foulds, G. A. (1956). A reevaluation of the fugue. Journal of Mental Science 102, 281–286.Google Scholar
Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist 36, 129–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradford, J. & Smith, S. M. (1979). Amnesia and homicide: the Padola case and a study of thirty cases. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 7, 219–231.Google Scholar
Clark, D. M. & Teasdale, J. D. (1982). Diurnal variation in clinical depression and accessibility of memories of positive and negative experiences. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 91, 87–95.Google Scholar
Eich, J. E. (1980). The cue-dependent nature of state-dependent retrieval. Memory and Cognition 8, 157–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibbens, T. C. N. & Hall Williams, J. E. (1977). Medicolegal aspects of amnesia. In Amnesia (ed. Whitty, C. W. M. and Zangwill, O. L.), pp. 245–264. Butterworths: London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, D. W., Crane, J. B. & Guze, S. B. (1969 a). Phenomeno-logical aspects of the alcoholic ‘blackout’. British Journal of Psychiatry 115, 1033–1038.Google Scholar
Goodwin, D. W., Powell, B., Bremer, D., Hoine, H. & Stern, J. (1969 b). Alcohol and recall: state-dependent effects in man. Science 163, 1358–1360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gudjonsson, G. H. & Haward, L. R. C. (1982). Case report – hysterical amnesia as an alternative to suicide. Medicine, Science and the Law 22, 68–72.Google Scholar
Gunn, J. & Bonn, J. (1971). Criminality and violence in epileptic prisoners. British Journal of Psychiatry 118, 337–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gunn, J. & Robertson, G. (1976). Drawing a criminal profile. British Journal of Criminology 16, 156–160.Google Scholar
Guttmacher, M. S. (1955). Psychiatry and the Law. Grune & Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
Hopwood, J. S. & Snell, H. K. (1933). Amnesia in relation to crime. Journal of Mental Science 79, 27–41.Google Scholar
Leitch, A. (1948). Notes on amnesia in crime for the general practitioner. Medical Press 219, 459–463.Google ScholarPubMed
Metcalfe, M. & Goldman, E. (1965). Validation of an inventory measuring depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 111, 240–242.Google Scholar
O'Connell, B. A. (1960). Amnesia and homicide. British Journal of Delinquency 10, 262–276.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. (1941). On the aetiology of the fugue states. Journal of Mental Science 87, 572–599.Google Scholar
Swanson, J. M. & Kinsbourne, M. (1976). Stimulant-related state-dependent learning in hyperactive children. Science 192, 1354–1356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teasdale, J. D. & Fogarty, F. J. (1979). Differential effects of induced mood on retrieval of pleasant and unpleasant events from episodic memory. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 88, 248–257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tulving, E. & Thomson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processor in episodic memory. Psychological Review 80, 352–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingartner, H., Miller, H. & Murphy, D. C. (1977). Mood-state-dependent retrieval of verbal associations. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 86, 276–284.Google Scholar
West, D. J. (1965). Murder Followed by Suicide. Heinemann: London.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wolf, A. S. (1980). Homicide and blackouts in Alaskan natives. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 41, 456–462.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1978). Mental Disorders: Glossary and Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar