![]() 22 The typical length and nature of such amnesic episodes have not been systematically investigated. 20 There have been claims that shame affects the general ability to disclose information 21 and that it may be an important factor in violent offenses. There have been clinical reports 19 and some investigation into the possible contribution that shame regarding an offense has on the offender's likelihood of confession. 15, –, 18 It is possible that different types of mechanisms arise in different types of offenses, but there has been little empirical investigation of this question. Dissociation, repression, or motivated forgetting, have all been postulated as underlying mechanisms, as well as encoding and retrieval impairments of various etiologies (including alcohol, drugs, and emotional arousal). There is also controversy about the underlying basis of amnesia. 1, –, 8 On the other hand, there are many reports that have questioned the existence of this phenomenon, arguing that amnesia is simulated in many or even most cases. Many psychiatric investigators have described amnesia in offenders, particularly in cases of violent crime or where alcohol is involved, and it is a common complaint in court. There is considerable controversy concerning amnesia for offenses. Brief amnesic gaps were likely to persist, perhaps as a consequence of faulty encoding during a period of extreme emotional arousal (or red-out). Memory often recovered, either partially or completely, especially where there was a history of blackouts or a lengthy amnesic gap. Long amnesic gaps were associated with a state of dissociation surrounding the offense and with previous blackouts (whether alcoholic or dissociative). The results showed that amnesia for a violent offense was associated with crimes of passion and dissociative symptoms at the time, but not with impaired neuropsychological functioning. ![]() In this study, 50 violent offenders were interviewed with neuropsychological and psychometric measures, to determine the factors that underlie amnesia and the recovery of memory in these cases. Amnesia for violent offenses is common, but little is known about underlying causes or whether memory can recover.
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