Offenders' Memories of Violent Crimes

Claims of amnesia for violent and sexual crimes are common as guilty suspects allege memory loss to avoid punishment. The key issue then becomes whether the memory loss is genuine or feigned. Offenders' Memories of Violent Crimes takes a new approach to the subject by focusing not on eyewitness or bystander testimonies, but on the testimonies of the offenders themselves - or, more specifically, on the way they remember and relate their violent crimes. Under the guidance of Sven Christianson, expert contributors explore offenders' memories with particular emphasis on theory and empirical research across areas such as memorial patterns, instrumental and reactive offenders, crime-related amnesia, crime-related brain activation, detecting lies and deceit and interviewing techniques.

Sven Å. Christianson is a Professor of Psychology, Ph.D., Chartered Psychologist, and chief of the Research Unit for Forensic Psychology, at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Sundsvall Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, Sweden. Dr Christianson has authored or co-authored over one hundred papers published in peer reviewed psychological and medical journals and anthologies, and has written or edited several books regarding crime, trauma, and memory, for example Handbook of Emotion and Memory (1992), Traumatic Memories (1994), Crime and Memory (1996), Advanced Interrogation and Interviewing Technique (1998) and Police Psychology (2004). The objective of his current research programme is to gain an understanding of the relationship between emotion and memory, with a research focus on victims’, bystander witnesses’ and offenders’ memories of violent and sexual crimes. Dr Christianson has been a consultant in numerous murder, rape and child sexual abuse cases, and he is a sought after speaker and psychological expert witness.