Jul 30, 2025 07:34 PM
(This post was last modified: Jul 30, 2025 07:34 PM by C C.)
He Said, She Said - How misinformation clouds the memory of accuser and accused in sexual assault cases
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1093048
INTRO: A new study suggests both defendants and complainants are equally prone to memory distortions in sexual assault cases.
Challenging long-held assumptions about how memory distortion should be understood in the courtroom, this research delivers compelling evidence that both the accused and the complainant in “he said, she said” cases are equally susceptible to memory errors.
There are many legal cases where the only evidence is the recollections of the people involved, with experts presenting opinions on the extent to which people can misremember their own experiences.
When it comes to sexual assault cases, the focus is almost always on the memory of the complainant – who is often treated as an unreliable narrator of her experiences – while the accused’s memory rarely comes in for the same degree of scrutiny.
Published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, the study by researchers from University College Dublin and University College Cork involved a series of experiments using an immersive first-person video to simulate a date that ended in sex... (MORE - details, no ads)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1093048
INTRO: A new study suggests both defendants and complainants are equally prone to memory distortions in sexual assault cases.
Challenging long-held assumptions about how memory distortion should be understood in the courtroom, this research delivers compelling evidence that both the accused and the complainant in “he said, she said” cases are equally susceptible to memory errors.
There are many legal cases where the only evidence is the recollections of the people involved, with experts presenting opinions on the extent to which people can misremember their own experiences.
When it comes to sexual assault cases, the focus is almost always on the memory of the complainant – who is often treated as an unreliable narrator of her experiences – while the accused’s memory rarely comes in for the same degree of scrutiny.
Published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, the study by researchers from University College Dublin and University College Cork involved a series of experiments using an immersive first-person video to simulate a date that ended in sex... (MORE - details, no ads)