How Do Judges Discuss Memory Failures in Childhood Sexual Abuse Cases? A Brief Report.

The natural fading of memory presents a difficulty for complainants who report childhood sexual abuse after a significant delay. The complainant's recollections, and their failures to recollect, may be the only source of evidence about the alleged offense and so may be determinative of outcome. We analyzed 101 published judicial decisions of timely tried and delayed complaints of child sexual abuse and coded for judge's comments related to complainants' memory failures. We utilized qualitative and quantitative methods for this study. There were more memory failure comments reported for cases with a delay to trial compared to no delay to trial. Further, there were more memory failure comments in cases that ended in acquittals than convictions when there was a delay to trial. Judicial discussion of memory failures about abuse setting or circumstances accounted for the highest percentage of comments.