Sex Offenders Who Claim Amnesia for Their Alleged Offense ..JCIT Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, V 23, N 2 (1995), P 299-307

• NCJ Number: 160304
• Author(s): D Bourget; J M W Bradford
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Demographic, psychiatric, and other information on 20 consecutive court-ordered outpatients who claimed amnesia for their sexual offenses was examined in detail and compared to similar data for a group of convicted sex offenders who admitted to their offense as well as convicted sex offenders who denied their guilt.

Abstract

The groups all underwent extensive psychiatric testing, laboratory testing, penile tumescence testing, and organic testing. Three case vignettes are used here to illustrate the findings, which showed that, as a group, amnestic offenders more often committed their offenses under the influence of alcohol and displayed higher degrees of violence. The majority of admitters and nonadmitters were pedophiles; admitters, in particular, scored higher than amnestic offenders in terms of higher self-reported sexual interest and activity. 4 tables and 20 references