Amnesia for criminal offences.
Nearly 10% of a sample of men charged with a variety of offences claimed amnesia for their offence. The amnesia occurred only among those who had committed violence and was most frequent following homicide. All the amnesics had a psychiatric disorder, four having a primary depressive illness and the remainder being almost equally divided between schizophrenia and alcohol abuse. None of the amnesias had any legal implications. The circumstances of the offences suggested a variety of mechanisms to account for the amnesia, including repression, dissociation and alcoholic black-outs. Psychological defence mechanisms were probably of some importance, even when alcohol was an important factor.
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology; D000647:Amnesia / Q000523:psychology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D003415:Crime; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D007298:Insanity Defense; D008297:Male; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014754:Violence