The impact of memory (mis)beliefs on public health and justice outcomes

The impact of inaccurate beliefs about memory function is a cause for scientific and societal concern;
controversial memory beliefs and associated risky treatments are again gaining currency. Experience
shows memory misbeliefs may contribute to non-trivial adverse health and justice outcomes. Potential
key negative health outcomes in therapeutic settings are: contentious diagnoses, increased patient
distress, self-harm and suicidal ideation, the development of false or inaccurate memories for child
sexual abuse and family fragmentation. Potential key negative outcomes in justice settings are: wrong
charging decisions, inadvertent contamination of witness interviews and incorrect evidential reliability
determinations that may contribute to unsafe verdicts.
This research aims to amplify existing scholarly awareness of the range and causes of memory misbeliefs
amongst health and justice professionals in England and Wales. It also proposes two novel research
strands to increase scientific understanding by (i) investigating relevant professionals' training content
on memory function and (ii) tracking health and justice outcomes in individual cases where memories for
child sexual abuse are facilitated or arise within therapy. The research will use mixed quantitative and
qualitative methods and gather information via self-completion questionnaires, face-to-face interviews
and retrospectively review clinical and justice case files.
The overall research objective is to improve awareness of memory function and fallibility and the need
for caution when investigating and interpreting long- term memory recall. Research data may indicate
the need for improved therapeutic regulation and professional education. It may also warrant revised
crown court guidance in cases reliant on long-term memory to prove the crime.