Criminology: Memory and the Law

Memory has ample implications in the field of law for detecting a true criminal and the defenders who are struggling to prove themselves innocent. The journey from the investigator seeking for the truth to the final verdict of the court is affected by various factors of the memory, even the participants in the process such as the eyewitnesses, the jurors and the emotions of criminal investigators all serve differently in the operational circle of the investigations. This paper aims at elucidating memory and law by presenting six scholarly journal articles, the methods used in their evaluations, the results of those studies, and the future directions identified from their outcomes. Limitations are also presented in the findings so that future research gaps can be detected accurately.

Importance of the Topic to Study

The inability to remember the crime that a person committed does not mean that the accused did not intend to commit the crime or there is no proof of committing it. The mental state and loss of memory due to certain reason reasons such as amnesia or alcohol intoxication could come in the way of being proven guilty in the light of the courts verdict. Punishing the rightfully guilty and providing justice to the affected ones is the sole responsibility of the criminal justice system of any country that has to be done carefully under strict measures so that no innocent is punished.

The disturbance in memory causes disruptions in the facts quoted related to the crime scene, be it from the eye witnesss side or the jurors note-taking abilities or even the defendant himself who might not have any memory at all of the criminal activity taking place ever. The functions of cognitive consciousness, identity, and the environments perceptions all play a part in a persons memory that is an integral part for a court to look into while deciding for the case in the courtroom.

Psychiatrists have investigated various cases in which they have identified the accused suffering from a dissociative disorder that has affected their memory. He does not completely recall or is aware of his surroundings at the time of the incident. There are specifications that the psychiatrists have to consider before clinically proving that the accused had some mental problems, so that memory and law could balance each other while deciding for the accuseds and victims fate. The specifications include mental suffering of the accused, having the unsound mental capacity of the person, the extent to which the accused is mentally ill such that he could commit a murder, whether the accused in the soundness of his mind to take care of himself and being able to continue his healthy life or even taking care of his property, etc. (Chadda, 2013).

The criminal justice system is responsible for conducting fair trials under the countrys constitution laid down by the 18th amendment. It says that the determination of the civil rights and their provision lies in the impartial trials where the court is obligated to present truthful process and resulting charges against the entitled person (Cornell Law School, n.a.). since it is serious accountability with which the court has to proceed by taking into consideration that wrongly accused should not suffer afterward because of social stigma, psychological distortions, effects on memory by staying in prison for long without having committed the offense, behavioral attitudes towards the justice system for life, hardships in adjusting within the society after getting back from jail, impact on family relations and the effect of false allegations on the family members, and negative impact on the financial and social wellbeing of the wrongfully proven guilty individual (Brooks & Greenberg, 2020). Hence, the topic holds immense significance when a complex element like memory is involved. The judicial system has to act reasonably at every step of the court proceeding. Strategies for making positive public perceptions about the courts decisions related to memory and the resulting decisions have to be devised so that mental trauma could be avoided that could adversely impact the economic costs.

Research Methods

Researchers choose research methodology based on the aptness of each distinct methodology for answering the research question. The contextual approach set for understanding the issue of the research topic is conducive to the selection of the research method. The topic of this paper is studied with various research methods in the selected six journal articles. They would be discussed one by one as follows:

The first selected scholarly journal article uses the qualitative research method via case study evaluation and a description of the theoreticl and practical implications in criminology and memory in law cases. The author, Marko Jelicic, of the article Testing Claims of Crime-Related Amnesia, talks about a case of a 29-year-old Randy who murdered his girlfriend but had no memory of it. Memory loss, amnesia, can play in victimizing the offender, specifically in terms of homicide case is critical since it is a serious crime leading a victim to life imprisonment (Jelicic, 2018).

The second selected scholarly journal article uses evidence-based practices and previous research, mainly secondary research, to scrutinize the fairness of law case verdicts when the accused are suffering from amnesia and resulting memory loss with psychological testing support (Go, 2017). The current court standards are investigated with a debate on whether they should focus on the accuseds intent or rely on his medical condition to conclude.

The third selected scholarly article discusses the eyewitness memory based on the evidence present and some graphical presentation of the earlier cases and their laboratory studies that involved the scenarios where eyewitness memory produced close to accurate identification (Wixted, Mickes & Fisher, 2018). Again, this study does not include any primary research and heavily relies on secondary data. The majority of the findings led to the fact that the time duration of the eye witness retention indicates how well he can recall an incident; however, it does not always stand true.

The fourth selected article is about jurors note-taking and their ability to recall what evidence was presented in the trials. This is the first primary research study included in this paper where three studies were conducted to test three different scenarios for jurors memory. The first study involved mock juror participants assessing their handwriting speed, the amount of critical evidence they could note down, the amount of information they were able to recall, and the if the information they noted down predicted the final verdict (Lorek et al., 2019). For this purpose, 141 participants were selected, of which 234 were males and 117 females aging between 18 years to 66 years. The Alphabet Fluency Task...

…when testimony is required for reaching a decision, the beliefs of clinicians and the weightage given to the memory evidence when facts are highlighted. However, when studying the hallmark cases from the 1980s to 1990s are considered, the shortcomings of those cases are still of benefit for forensic scientists and scientific research into the biological and neuropsychological explanations of how the memory works under certain conditions and stressful conditions events.

Discussion/ Conclusion

In cognitive psychology, memory works as a limited system with the restricted capacity to facilitate either temporary or permanent storage of certain facts. The manipulations should be considered vital under particular conditions such as anger, trauma, and medical conditions where memory and recall abilities are disturbed. The comprehension, reasoning, and recall skills become complex tasks in criminology applications. The episodic and long-term memories are closely monitored with the association of semantic memory so that its functionality could be understood when case facts remembrance is concerned.

The memories of eyewitnesses and jurors hold a substantial place in courtroom testimonials due to the gender-based difference in memory workings of both males and females. It has been studied earlier that females have better memory other than after menopause. There are considerable changes in neuronal activity in memory retrieval, and the reliance upon verbal information is changed altogether (Loprinzi & Frith, 2018). The biological explanations for this explanation persist since there is greater activity in females right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when compared to males more activity in the left parahippocampal region. Blood flow is increased in these specified areas. Still, the same does not stand true for either of their estrogen levels, as the correlation between estrogen level and episodic memory has not been strong in earlier studies.

Also, anger negatively impacted the memory as there are more inconsistencies; however, there is an opposite finding that anger allows the participants to be more vigilant about processing the trials information. Future studies can concentrate on finding out how the induction of a certain emotion like anger can manipulate the jurors opinions about the case and how emotions can claim the defendant as not guilty.

Furthermore, if mood affects the memories, then it is possible that trauma and repressed memories stimulate the direction of the case in a different direction as well, directly impacting the final verdict of the investigation. Future research studies need to be more careful in finding this gap. It would be interesting to look into the repressed memories role and the emotions attached to it when related to memory recall, such as rape victims.

Limitations

Most of the studies were based on evidence-based practices, the current law standards for perceiving the memory and its role in the defendants intent of committing a crime, and reaching the final and fair decision within the courtroom.

Most of the female mock jurors were included in one of the primary research studies, whereas it is already explored that females have a better memory. This study could be considered biased in terms of gaining better memory results. It should have been taken into account while making samples that an equal number of males and females should have been included for getting fair results and increasing reliability and the authenticity of the study.

Age affects the mood, and the mood affects the memory recalling in criminal cases. Hence, the studies should have been more…